


Clan Name: RainbowRanger

by sadbabyosborn (arka_r)



Category: The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb)
Genre: Agender Character, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Asexual Character, Bullying, F/F, Gamers!AU, Geek Culture, High School, Homophobia, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Sexism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-27
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-02-15 00:09:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 34,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2208252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arka_r/pseuds/sadbabyosborn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In real world, Peter Parker is an unassuming geek guy who gets shoved a lot. In game world, he is a summoner who may or may not have started a revolt against sexism and bigotry.</p><p>He just doesn't like bullies.</p><p>Parksborn Gamers!AU. Update every Monday (GMT+7).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Okay, first of all… This fic is a gamers!AU where our beloved babies are playing a NCSoft game, Lineage II. You don’t need to play Lineage II to understand this fic, since the main plot in this fic will be about LGBTQIA+ people’s struggle in a game full of bigots. The side plot is about a gamer girl struggling in a game full of sexists who like to make ‘go back to the kitchen’ joke or rape joke.
> 
> A bit author backstory here, I used to play Lineage II in Indonesia server for years before it was closed. The majority of the players were homophobic dudes. My clan chat used to be full of rape joke, vagina joke, etc. During clan war, all kind of slurs attacking gay people were shouted all over the chat. They could be very vulgar if they wanted. In my clan, there were four girls as active clan members, including me. Sometimes we tried to restrain the boys, but most of the time we just ignored them or closed the chat window.
> 
> Now about the game itself, Lineage II releases a patch once in six months or so. The newest chapter is called Goddess of Destruction. There are six patches in this chapter: Awakening, Harmony, Tauti, Glory Days, Lindvior, and Ertheia.
> 
> As I was saying, the Indonesian server was closed (due to reasons I don’t fully understand) before Lindvior patch was released, so I don’t know too much about Lindvior patch and Ertheia patch. The patch I’m using in this fic is Glory Days. So, if you play the game and notice a lot of differences, that’s because I’m using older patch.
> 
> In Lineage II, there are eight Awakening classes. They are tanker (Sigel Knight), buffer (Iss Enchanter), healer (Aeore Healer). Damage dealers are Feoh Wizard, Wynn Summoner, Tyrr Warrior, Yul Archer, and Othell Rogue.
> 
> You reach Awakening when your character hit lv85. Before Awakening, there are 35 classes, so let’s not mention that.
> 
> There are six races: Human, Elf, Dark Elf, Orc, Dwarf, and Kamael. Each races have their own speciality. 
> 
> -Human character can Awaken to **all** class.  
>  -Elf and Dark Elf character can Awaken to all class **except** Tyrr Warrior.  
>  -Orc character can **only** Awaken to Tyrr Warrior and Iss Enchanter.  
>  -Dwarf character can **only** Awaken to Tyrr Warrior and Othell Rogue.  
>  -Kamael character can **only** awaken to Tyrr Warrior, Yul Archer, and Feoh Wizard.
> 
> However, if your character reached lv85 before Awakening patch, you will receive an item called Stone of Destiny. This item will enable you to Awaken to **any class** , regardless your race.
> 
> Peter’s character is a Wynn Summoner from Kamael race (because he used Stone of Destiny item). Bluebell is an Aeore Healer from Elf race. TitaniumTitan is a Sigel Knight from Human race.
> 
>  **Copy-pasted from Lineage2 website since I'm too lazy to think about the definition of Clan:** A clan is a group of players who decide to maintain a long-standing partnership in which they become friends and help each other out in-game. Many valuable friendships in real-life first start out in an in-game clan. With a clan, numerous features in Lineage II become more accessible, including Castle Sieges and Clan Halls. A clan is made up of a clan leader, commonly known as a Lord, and a number of clan members. New clans may accept up to 10 members. As the clan reaches new levels, it can have up to 220 members. Also, as a clan rises in level it can learn clan skills, powerful abilities which affect the entire clan at the same time.
> 
> I think that’s all you need to know. Hope you’re enjoying this fic :3

Peter Parker really hated his high school.

 

He really hated the know-it-all teachers. He really hated the snobby rich kids who were able to enter because their daddies donated a truckload of money. He really hated the jocks from football club who thought it was okay to shove nerds as field practice. He _especially_ hated the lovey dovey couples who loved to make out by his locker door.

 

He sighed when he couldn’t open the door for the umpteenth time this week because the couple refused to stop their stupid french kissing and thus blocking his locker. Peter rolled his eyes. _Heterosexuals_.

 

Ugh, fine. Who needed textbook anyway. He dragged his feet to his class. It only took him ten steps until Flash Thompson shoved him roughly to the floor. The big bully purposely stepped on his hand, Peter just knew it. He refused to scream out in pain. If this was a game, Thompson would be stomped to death by Peter’s awesome character. Since it was not, Peter simply sighed and picked up his bag from the floor.

 

As usual, he sat at the back of the class. He planned to sleep through History. Damn Antharas raid last night made him stay awake until three in the morning. It was worth it, though. Out of five parties who worked together to kill the raid, Peter’s party did the last hit, thanks to their awesome healer. They got most of the loots. Peter got three enchant scrolls for his weapon.

 

Tonight, they would try that Tauti raid. Peter just couldn’t wait.

 

\--

 

He got the party invitation as soon as he logged in. Peter smiled at the familiar name.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr joined the party.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: now we wait for Bluebell ;)**

 

TitaniumTitan and Bluebell were in the same clan with Peter’s Wynn Summoner since Interlude patch a couple years back. TitaniumTitan was a Human male Sigel Knight, while Bluebell was an Elf female Aeore Healer. They were never be seen without one another and often flirted to each other at party chat. Peter got a feeling they were… well, a couple.

 

Along with Peter’s character, they usually went hunting together and doing daily quests. Peter liked to be in their party because they were all about skills. They had been inviting him into their party for years, so it was only natural for him to understand their playing style.

 

TitaniumTitan was a crazy tanker who loved to mob; and by loved it meaning he usually pulled twenty-or-so mobs in a go. It drained Peter’s mana all too quickly, but Bluebell always got his back. Bluebell never slacked off between healing TitaniumTitan’s health and Peter’s mana. She was just that good. They usually finished all daily quests in under an hour.

 

**Clan member Bluebell has logged in**

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: There she is.**

**[clan]Bluebell: add me bae**

 

In under thirty minutes, the clan members were gathering at the Seed of Hellfire with minor intrusion (just some members from the enemy clan who sneaked on them). Once all five parties were gathered, the clan leader took them into Tauti’s instance dungeon. The buffers of each party started giving buffs as soon as they were all inside.

 

**[party]Kkkrakenzz: buff me**

 

… Or not all of them. Peter rolled his eyes. There were always players with slower internet connection who lagged and ruined everything. Apparently, Peter’s party was a bit too lucky to get that kind of guy tonight.

 

**[party]Kkkrakenzz: hey bitch buff me**

 

Aaand, he had the gall to use the b-word.

 

If there was a thing Peter always hated from this game, it was the heterosexist dickhead like this. They were the kind who liked to make ‘go back to the kitchen’ jokes, gay jokes, rape jokes, or all of those jokes combined. Peter knew a few gamer girls and gays from this game, and they were all nice. One of them had a dwarf character whom Peter was eternally grateful for letting him craft the armor set he wore now.

 

Peter tried to avoid guys like this dickhead like plague.

 

The buffer had no choice and started re-buffing. Tauti instance dungeon got sixty minutes timer; and if they hadn’t defeated Tauti by then, they would all get kicked out. By the time they entered Tauti’s domain, they had wasted ten minutes longer than usual. Peter got a feeling they wouldn’t be successful tonight.

 

The raid had only started three minutes when the user Kkkrakenzz made another trouble.

 

**[party]Kkkrakenzz: ress me**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You’re supposed to run when it jumps.**

**[party]Kkkrakenzz: sorry i dont know that**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Read Titan’s chat.**

**[party]Kkkrakenzz: yeah sorry**

**[party]Kkkrakenzz: ress me**

 

Even Peter could hear Bluebell and TitaniumTitan’s collective eyerolls. If there was a thing Bluebell and TitaniumTitan hated, it was party member who didn’t follow the leader's order. Peter hated it too; but his character’s class had less importance than a tanker or a healer, thus his opinion had less weight.

 

Bluebell resurrected Kkkrakenzz. Then, the raid jumped again.

 

Here was the thing. Tauti’s leap attack was an overkill. When it hit you, it gave you over than a hundred thousand damage, no matter your character stats. Even a tanker wearing heavy armor set and full set of tattoos to add to their health could die in a hit.

 

**[party]TitaniumTitan: run now**

 

Again, Kkkrakenzz didn’t run away from the raid, resulting his character’s death. Why did they bring a dumb Tyrr Warrior into the raid again?

 

Usually, for big raids like Tauti, the main tanker party consisted of a buffer, two healers, three damage dealers, and the tanker itself. Peter’s party was the main tanker party, since TitaniumTitan got better armor set and better accessory set (one of his accessories was a shining Antharas Earring, an epic accessory piece that Peter could only drool of from the distance). The healers’ job was to heal the tanker, not get distracted by stupid Tyrr Warrior who thought they could tank the raid.

 

**[party]Bluebell: what a moron**

**[party]Kkkrakenzz: i cant run fast**

 

Of course he couldn’t run fast. The idiot died once and got a Shilen’s Mark. When you died during big raid, you got a Shilen’s Mark which reduced your stats. The more you died, the more your stats got reduced. Pro raid parties usually managed  _not_ to die in the first three minute.

 

**[party]Kkkrakenzz: ress me**

**[party]Bluebell: ress urself**

 

Peter thought Bluebell’s reaction was only natural. The raid got harder now that they had reduced the raid’s health to fifty percents. It jumped more and summoned its minions. Bluebell’s attention was divided between healing the tanker and avoiding the raid’s attacks. Even Peter had to heal himself by using potions. Thankfully, he hadn’t died yet, not even once. The perks of being awesome summoner who used long-ranged weapon, he guessed.

 

**[clan]Kkkrakenzz: ress me**

 

The big idiot had the gall to ask in clan chat. Begrudgingly, Peter used a Resurrection Scroll he got from previous raids. He only used the item during clan war.

 

The raid’s health now reached twenty five percents. Peter doubted they could kill the raid with ten minutes left. Peter had died once when he moved too close to the raid during its leap attack and he had used _both_ of his transformation skills. Even Bluebell had died twice when she had to resurrect TitaniumTitan and the Big Idiot.

 

**[party]Kkkrakenzz: ress me**

 

By then, the idiot had died five times. There was no point of him in the party anymore. With his slow running and weak damage, he was practically a deadweight to the party.

 

The time was up and they were all got kicked out of the dungeon. Peter sighed. He knew it. Well, at least it was fun. Maybe they would succeed next time. Peter clicked the item to return to his clan hall, when the Big Idiot's chat popped up, in clan chat no less.

 

**[clan]Kkkrakenzz: stupid girl**

**[clan]Kkkrakenzz: if u cant play go back to the kitchen**

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: it’s your own fault moron.**

**[clan]Kkkrakenzz: she cant play**

**[clan]Kkkrakenzz: fag**

 

He was really being out of line now. If he wasn’t already dead, Peter would summon his Grim Reapers to beat the shit out of him.

 

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: yeah i’m a faggot. i’m a flaming faggot.**

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: you got problem with me?**

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: that’s cute.**

**[clan]TitaniumTitan has left the clan**

 

Whoa. What?

 

Peter blinked at the event unraveling before his eyes. He never saw Titan losing control in clan chat. Even in the heat of clan war, he never gave to other players’ taunts. As a matter of fact, he never talked in clan chat aside from raid chat, war chat, and occasional science joke. In party chat, though, he was witty and loved to play along to Bluebell's more flirtatious remarks, although he was still polite.

 

**[clan]Atreya: always knew he’s a fag**

**[clan]SirBigD: that’s a bit rude guys.**

**[clan]Kkkrakenzz: fag cant take a joke**

 

Peter squinted at the clan chat. Since when his clan was full of sexists and bigots? He sighed.

 

One of the reasons Peter played this game was to escape his shitty real life. Titan had to have a lot of people throwing shits at him for being gay in real life. Of course he didn’t want to experience the same thing in game too. It was a very reasonable for him leaving a clan full of bigots.

 

**[clan]Bluebell: well now we know dis clan is full of trash**

**[clan]Bluebell: were outta here bye**

**[clan]Bluebell has left the clan**

 

Now Peter positively gaped. Two oldest members of the clan had left just like that. If he wasn’t so stunned, he would have laughed. Bluebell and TitaniumTitan were two of six members who had reached level 99 in their clan, not to mention that they were usually being in the main tank party. In other words, them leaving the clan was a big loss. If they were planning to join the enemy clan, it would be harder for them to win a war. Future raids would be harder.

 

Still, Peter felt bad to both of them. It wasn’t their fault for being gay, or born a girl. Peter hesitated. Should he send a whisper message to them or shouldn’t he? They were… friends, right? And he wanted to tell them he was against the whole sexism and bigotry.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Hey you ok?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Sorry about them, dude.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: not your fault.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: don’t apologise.**

 

Peter licked his lips. He felt _bad_ , okay. He had been in the clan for years. He watched the leaders change from one player to another, watched the noobs become stronger. It felt like betrayal to find out that they were the kind of people he always wanted to avoid.

 

**Bluebell invited you to the party.**

 

Peter accepted the invitation out of habit, then blinked.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr has joined the party**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Hey guys.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Now I know what they’re like**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: I don’t think I want to be in the clan anymore.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: oh, you don’t have to.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: you’re practically like one of the elders.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: No, it’s okay.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: I don’t like bullies, so…**

 

Peter clicked the button to leave the clan. He really didn’t like bigots. Besides, to spew out bigotry would be so hypocrite of him.

 

**[party]Bluebell: hs student??**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Uh, yeah.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You know high school.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Bullies always out for the nerds.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: hunny, no.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: don’t spoil the kid’s innocence.**

**[party]Bluebell: relax bae**

**[party]Bluebell: i wont bite ;)**

 

Aw, these two were too cute Peter would get diabetes by reading their chats.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: So, you’re two are couples?**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: what????**

**[party]Bluebell: ew gross no!!!!!!**

**[party]Bluebell: shes just friend**

 

What. 

 

**[party]Bluebell: i probly shoudnt say dat**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: you’re doing it on purpose.**

 

Wait, what?! TitaniumTitan was a _girl?!_

 

**[party]TitaniumTitan: before you hit on me, i’m telling you i’m lez.**

 

And she was a lesbian?!

 

**[party]TitaniumTitan: and before you ask if you can watch, i’m telling you go fuck yourself.**

 

Quickly, Peter typed on his keyboard.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: No, no! God, I’m just surprised that you’re girl is all.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: I never take you as a girl. I mean you’re such a badass.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: excuse you??? so girls can’t be badass??**

 

Peter groaned. He didn’t meant it like that! Gosh, why was he so socially inept? It was like he was doomed to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: … Sorry?**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: forgiven.**

 

He… probably should feel afraid now. If she were out for his life, Peter didn’t think that even his Grim Reapers’ attack could blow past that heavy armor. Once during a war, Titan ran into three archers, one summoner, and one wizard. She survived long enough until Bluebell could heal her. That tanker was practically a human panzer.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Besides I don’t want to watch.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: I’m gay too.**

 

There, he told them. He was out, _finally_. He smashed his head at the keyboard and clutched at his hair. God, why did he let that out? He was not ready to come out of his closet yet!

 

Suddenly, Bluebell made a laughing action. Her character’s laughter rang on Peter’s headphone. He felt insulted. It was the first time _ever_ he confessed to someone that he was gay and he was _laughed at_.

 

**[party]Bluebell: LOL**

**[party]Bluebell: great were all queer**

 

Uh, okay. This whole conversation started to change into heart-to-heart session and _please_ it needed to stop like, right now. Peter had known these people since _years_. He wasn’t ready to find that his whole life was a lie.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You’re gay too???**

**[party]Bluebell: ace**

 

Oh. He… really didn’t know what to say about that. His knowledge about asexual probably could fit in a pipette.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Maybe we should make a clan for queer or something.**

 

He was really trying to cheer them up, _really_. He _really_ tried. Maybe he should add a ‘jk’ or just shut his trap. He didn’t want them thinking him weird… well, _weirder_. A clan for queer, what was he _thinking?!_ The bigots in the game would have slaughtered them all simply for being in a clan of queer.

 

**[party]Bluebell: thats… probly a great idea**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Really?**

**[party]Bluebell: yeah. were gonna kick dem bigot ass**

 

Bluebell’s declaration was so… simple, that it took Peter a few minute to process. Three of them; a tanker, a healer, and a summoner; were all level 99 character who had years of player versus player experience under their belt. If they were to be attacked, they wouldn’t be an easy kill.

 

**[party]Bluebell: well whos gonna lead?**

 

Well, at least he wouldn’t be alone in this. If they were to paint a bullseye on themselves, they would show them the queer power. Peter smiled. It was such a great idea and he probably would regret this later.

 

Managing a clan was not an easy task, as Peter had observed. It took great responsibility and leadership to manage a whole bunch of unruly players from all age range with different characteristics. It could be exhausting too, especially when you had to handle obnoxious noobs who asked for money or equipments.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: I can lead.**

**[party]Bluebell: gr8**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: you guys are crazy.**

 

Peter was so going to regret this later.

 

**[party]TitaniumTitan: let’s do this.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I planned to post this chapter at Monday but, oops.
> 
> ALSO THANK YOU FOR READING AND KUDOS AND COMMENT OH GOSH. Please bear with me. Things are a bit hectic since I'm preparing for my graduation ceremony, but I'll try to update once in a couple of days :3
> 
> \--
> 
> **More about the game:**
> 
> Subclass is a feature that enables you to choose three non-Awaken classes (out of 34 of them) in a same character. You can choose only one of your Subclasses and Awaken it, so your character can have two Awakened classes. Your first Awakened class becomes your Main Class, while your second Awakened class becomes your Dual Class. You can level up your Dual Class to level 99. Your Main Class and your Dual Class can’t be identical.
> 
> For example, Peter’s character’s Main Class is Wynn Summoner.
> 
> A bit reminder, Peter’s character race is Kamael. Kamael race is a weirdly special snowflake in game, because they can’t choose any non-Awaken classes outside their own race’s classes as their Subclass. Other races too can’t choose Kamael non-Awaken classes as their Subclass.
> 
> In addition, there’s one Kamael non-Awaken class that can only be taken through Subclass. Meaning, it can’t be your Main Class. It’s called Judicator, and you can Awaken it to Iss Enchanter.
> 
> Because Peter is a special snowflake too, naturally, his character’s Dual Class is Iss Enchanter.

Peter spent lunchtime doodling on his notebook. He needed to make a good name for his clan, preferably punny and/or _gay_. _Rainbow Warrior?_ Nah. Wasn’t that a ship name? Too bad Greenpeace had taken that one. _Flaming Fighter?_ Oh God, too gay. Back out, back out. Peter scratched out that one. Frustrated, he jotted any ideas that came into his head. _Proud Knight, Flaming Knight, Proud Hall, Rainbow Hall, Rainbow Brigade, Rainbow Ranger_ —

 

Rainbow Ranger sounded catchy. Plus, it was alliterative, which always a bonus point. Peter circled it with his red ballpoint. Now to make the clan symbol…

 

A double R made it look like Richie Rich logo or something. Maybe if he put a smaller ‘R’ in a bigger ‘R’… Also, should he put the pride flag in the background or would that be too obnoxious?

 

He was too busy doodling that it took him some time to realize someone was looking over his shoulder. Quickly, Peter covered his notebook by using his left arm and looked over his shoulder.

 

It was Gwen Stacy.

 

The whole school knew about Gwen Stacy. She was super smart. She was pretty. She got the top marks in science classes and math classes. She was the president of debate club. On top of that, she was dating the richest, most popular boy in school, Harry Osborn. Peter might or might not have a personal vendetta on her.

 

The thing was, Peter had a massive crush to Harry Osborn since Peter was a sixth grader and realized he was a flaming queer. Like, _gigantic_ crush. The guy was older by two years, so that made him a senior. He was so filthy rich because his daddy owned this multibillion company called the Oscorp Industries, but Harry was… well, _kind_ was not a word Peter would use to describe Harry Osborn. He got a sick sense of humor, true; and though his joke were bloody and borderline gory, Peter noticed he _never_ cracked a rape joke or gay joke.

 

Harry had defended him once when Peter nearly got himself killed by accidentally spilling orange juice to his senior’s shirt, who turned out to be the biggest bully at school. The guy got expelled too, thanks to Harry’s dad’s influence to the principal. Later Peter found out that Harry had an old grudge to the bully, so actually he acted out of his own interest. Still, Peter preferred to live in the land of denial that Harry Osborn was Peter’s own knight in shining armor.

 

Fuck, now he was staring at Gwen.

 

“Er.”

 

“Oh, um. What are you drawing?” she smiled at him awkwardly.

 

“Erm, uh. Just. Something. For my friend’s band”, Peter laughed dryly as he moved to close his notebook. “You know. Indie band. They ask me to make a logo.”

 

There was no way in hell Peter would mention anything about how he was _technically_ a gamer geek.

 

“I see. Um, that’s nice”, Gwen nodded, then left.

 

Peter still felt a bit weird that one of the most popular students at school just talked to him, as in having a two-way conversation like proper human interaction, even if it was super stilted and super weird. Of course, the weird feeling didn’t last long because then he saw that Gwen had walked off to the very Harry Osborn.

 

Harry had an arm around her shoulder and Peter might or might not shrivel a little inside.

 

But it wasn’t a new thing. Peter was jealous, yeah, but he wasn’t some kind of sick creepy stalker. It was just… Harry was just too beautiful and refined and Peter felt like a dirt compared to him. Naturally, he never bothered trying to talk to him since he was afraid he would turn into a blubbering mess. He chose to admire Harry from the distance, instead, in totally not creepy way.

 

Today Harry wore white shirt and dark blue sleeveless sweater that brought out his otherworldly pale blue eyes. His light blue pants were pressed and immaculate, and his shoes shone that Peter imagined he could see his reflection there. His hair was light blond ( _fair_ , Peter’s mind supplied) and a bit rumpled. Peter liked it when his hair was a bit rumpled. It looked cute on him. As usual, he also wore a scarf which covered his neck. Harry never wore the same scarf everyday. It made Peter wonder just how big his scarves collection were.

 

While Harry was dressed like a prince, Peter was a pauper who wore oversized ratty jacket and jeans that had holes. His blue shirt had Star Trek science insignia that he drew himself (he got two other shirts with command insignia and operations insignia). His sneakers had tiny Iron Man’s arc reactor marker drawings on them that Peter had drawn when was bored. His glasses were thick and old, because they were his father’s once. Thank God he had his braces removed last month, so that was minus one to his nerdy-ness.

 

Once Harry left from his sight, Peter slumped on his table, cursing all omnipotent beings above why Harry Osborn was created a hetero while praising them at the same time for creating Harry Osborn on the first place.

 

\--

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: hey want kartia?**

 

Peter was using his Dual Class, a level 87 Iss Enchanter, when Bluebell whispered him in game.

 

Kartia Labyrinth was an instance dungeon that could only be entered once a day, if you succeeded defeating the dungeon boss. It was level-based, meaning only characters with certain level range could enter it. In fact, Peter was doing Kartia dungeon for level 85 to 89 when Bluebell whispered him.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: In a sec.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Doing Kartia 85.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: k**

 

The dungeon boss for Kartia Labyrinth level 85 to 89 called Zellaka, was a big annoying prick. If its minions weren’t annoying enough, its Fear skill was doubly annoying. It sent the party members running away from it. There was literally nothing could resist the skill except avoiding it in the first place. Sadly, being a short-ranged hitter slash buffer, his Iss Enchanter was prone to get Fear’d.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: baes out dating**

**[whisper]Bluebell: im bord :(**

 

Despite his character was dead from Zellaka’s attacks, Peter couldn’t help chuckling. He almost could hear Bluebell whining.

 

Peter finished the Kartia and went back to Town of Aden so he could switch back to his Main Class. There he saw Bluebell’s character sitting by the stairs, vending items like enchant scrolls for armor or weapon. Peter nabbed one enchant scroll for his Enchanter’s weapon, a dual sword named Apocalypse Dualsword. It lit in dim blue light when the enchant was successful.

 

**Bluebell invited you to the party.**

 

Peter accepted the invitation, then clicked the action button so his character now sat next to Bluebell’s.

 

**[party]Bluebell: im hom aolne w my catss**

**[party]Bluebell: puessies**

**[party]Bluebell: haha**

**[party]Bluebell: fcuk im drukn**

 

Peter raised his eyebrows.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You’ve been drinking?**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Uh, sorry if I’m nosey, but are you two living together?**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You and Titan, I mean.**

**[party]Bluebell: joint apartmrnt**

 

Somehow, Peter felt like Bluebell’s short replies sound a bit sad… well, sadder than usual. Also the fact that she was drinking when her roomie went out for a date. And it was because she was bored and accompanied only by her cats (were cats constitute as actual friends? Peter never had any pets so it wasn’t like he knew). Was she even legal yet? Peter shrugged. Not her problem. The least he could do was chatting to her so she wouldn’t resort back to her bottles (or cans, whatever cheap stuff she got).

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Clan leader PM’d me today.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Asked if I can join back to help for war.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You know, siege war at Sunday.**

**[party]Bluebell: wot d u to;d him**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: I told him to shove his sword up to the place where sun don’t shine.**

 

A minute passed when Bluebell hadn’t replied. Peter was sincerely worried. Was she dropped asleep or something? Oh God, what if she was dead?! He read stuffs like how gamers dropped dead in front of their PC’s. Before Peter’s paranoia got worsened, though, there was a reply on the chat box.

 

**[party]Bluebell: fuq i lauhghed so hard m cat sracthes me**

**[party]Bluebell: dat is soooo preciuos**

**[party]Bluebell: preciosu**

**[party]Bluebell: fugck can u lead??**

**[party]Bluebell: im drunkk**

 

Peter chuckled as he typed the command to switch the party leader.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Yeah, I don’t like people insulting my friends.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Can you Kartia like this? Drunk, I mean.**

**[party]Bluebell: ofcoruse**

 

Peter squinted, but who was he to judge? Once, on a summer holiday, he stayed up for 48 hours to finish the Seven Signs quest series and by the time he finished, the clan brought him along to a war zone. Peter was a bundle of frayed nerves by then, but he killed a lot from the enemy side so no harm done (except his mom and Aunt May scolded him for _days_ afterward).

 

He switched the tab from his game window to his browser and scrolled his Facebook for five minutes. When he switched back, he found the notification that TitaniumTitan was logged on. Peter added her (and wasn’t it weird to address him as _her_ ;he probably should get used to it) to the party out of habit.

 

**[party]TitaniumTitan has joined the party**

**[party]Bluebell: baeeeeee**

 

Seeing Bluebell’s reaction on the chat box, Peter somehow imagined her hanging on Titan’s neck like a baby sloth. Fuck, these two might be not couples, but they were just too cute.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Hey, I thought you’re on a date?**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: at gf nbd.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: just checking on my bae.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: pls tell me you’re not drinking.**

**[party]Bluebell: nopee no drignking**

 

Peter laughed. Oh, this was just too precious.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Lies. She’s sloshed.**

**[party]Bluebell: fuq u im not**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Liar liar pants on fire.**

**[party]Bluebell: im nooooooot**

 

Peter was too busy wiping tears from his eyes when Bluebell’s response came up next.

 

**[party]Bluebell: m not wearign pans**

 

Ooooookay, this was starting to get weird. Quickly, Peter typed.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Oh God I don’t need that mental image.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Take your naked girly Elvish-like body away from my gay eyes.**

**[party]Bluebell: fuwq u pidey**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Also, what the hell. Your roomie is your drinking sheriff??**

**[party]Bluebell: fuckl uuu**

**[party]Bluebell: shell lovckd uip da cabient**

 

Peter was positively laughing his ass off. It was so fun poking at Bluebell—or… it was probably creepy when he remembered that he was a boy and Bluebell was a girl. Also God damn it, they were being so _heterosexual_ it was disgusting. Peter snorted again. Friends. Mutual friends. Right. No hetero.

 

**[party]Bluebell: baeeeeeeee my keiyborad brplke agian**

**[party]Bluebell: bvuyyy meeeee anontehr**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: your terrible typing is not your keyboard’s fault jfc.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: go to sleep before i call your dad.**

**[party]Bluebell: :(**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: gf back. gtg off now.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan has left the party.**

 

Peter typed a quick ‘brb raiding pantry’ on the chat then left his room. His stomach had been growling since he started Kartia because he was working on the clan banner on his Photoshop (pirated, shut up). He strode down the stairs noisily and proceeded to raid the fridge. Ooooh, meatloaf. His aunt’s meatloaves might not be the best thing after space travel, but it still had its… unique taste. Besides, he was hungry. At this point, he doubted that even burnt bacon could be so bad.

 

“Don’t stay up late playing games again”, his mom called from the dining room. Peter quickly snagged some meatloaves, cheese, lettuces (his mom insisted that he needed some greens), and stole some sausages and eggs from the table. He kissed his mom’s cheek, then his aunt’s.

 

“I won’t. G’night!” he said. When they said their own good night’s, Peter had already climbed up the stairs.

 

He slapped his loots together into meatloaf-sandwich. That was when he saw the chat box.

 

**[party]Bluebell: nnbiourewqertyu7lkjiou2e45yio;;,gjmdcx**

**[party]Bluebell: \\]][bf[plvklo9ifkkewj kjl uufiehin**

 

Peter wiped his fingers on his shirt, then typed.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Uhh, Bluebell?**

 

There was no immediate reply. He munched at his food slowly. It was fifteen minutes later and Peter was halfway done with his dinner, when he got the replies.

 

**[party]Bluebell: cat**

**[party]Bluebell: hes a menace**

**[party]Bluebell: dats why i named him khan**

 

“Huh?” Peter mumbled. Khan from Star Trek? Well, since Benedict Cucumberpatch played as the new Khan, Peter knew that a lot of girls got hots for him. It was disturbing, actually, the way rabid fangirls portrayed the new Khan as redeemable misunderstood guy. The guy was hot and got one hell of a sob story, alright, but he was still a mass murderer, for fucks’ sake!

 

Well, maybe he shouldn’t quick to judge Bluebell. She was asexual, right? So maybe she chose the name purely on her cat’s characteristics that resembled Khan and not because she was one of those rabid fangirls.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You should try watching The Wrath of Khan.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Also congrats! You’re sober now.**

**[party]Bluebell: nO DONT SPEAK TO ME ABOUT TWOK!!!!!!!!!**

**[party]Bluebell: ThATS FUCKD UP**

 

Huh, so she watched the original series. Maybe Peter should give her more credits. It wasn’t right to judge that all girls geek only watched the reboot movies.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Wow calm down. Alright. I won’t speak about it.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: But how about The Search For Spock?**

**[party]Bluebell: ur terrble**

**[party]Bluebell: im not drunk enough for this**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: No, please don’t drink again.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Let’s just go Kartia or something.**

**[party]Bluebell: k**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You lead. Brb.**

 

Peter cleaned up his dinner and set his plate aside. He went out to the bathroom and got a glass of water to drink. When he went back, there was a reply waiting for him.

 

**[party]Bluebell: i dont hv more drink anw**

 

Peter laughed so hard his aunt told him to shut up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUL COMMENT AND KUDOS *bathes in kudos*
> 
> also thank you for user Beryllos who is translating this work to Chinese. now i really wish i understand Chinese because i'm seriously intrigued about Harry's drunkspeak in Chinese haha :p
> 
> monday and tuesday i will busy preparing for my graduation, so i doubt i can update then. but i already have chapter 4 and 5 written. it only needs a bit re-reading and crosschecking :3

Weekend was time to work and get some extra pennies for his piggy bank. With new event closing in and new cash items released, Peter would like to have some money for his bi-monthly splurging. He definitely would get that cute head accessory for his character.

Peter got some extra money from his mom if he helped taking care of the house with labors like cleaning the bathroom floor and fixing the leaking pipes. His monthly allowance usually was only enough to cover his most basic needs like paying for his textbook photocopies and his internet connection (since he was the only one in their house who used it anyway). His mom worked as a secretary at Oscorp while his Aunt double-shifting as nurse at hospital. Their pay weren’t so great so money was tight for them.

For his own saving and gaming needs, Peter got them from walking his neighbor’s dogs at weekends and working at local diner during school breaks. He also had an online portfolio (actually, it was only Deviantart page) where people could commission him cover designs or vector arts. His earning was quite good too. He saved the money he got for paying his college, if he were to apply to college after finishing high school.

The bathroom was squeaky clean and the kitchen was gleaming that he could see his own reflection on the countertop. The water heater still needed a bit of fiddling, but it could work passably. His mom and aunt agreed that they would save up a bit to replace the damn old thing. They said it was practically older than Peter’s own life.

He smelled awful and his aunt wouldn’t permit him touching any of her food with dirty hands, so Peter finished his work and took a shower. He shaved too, because beard plus his sticky figure just wouldn’t do. Once he felt adequate, he dressed in fresh t-shirt and smothered her aunt in a hug to show her he was clean. She shoved a plate of meatballs as peace offering, laughing.

After gobbling down the meatballs, Peter bounded up to his room, sidestepping his mom who was vacuuming the hallway. The penalty his character got from leaving the clan had ended last night, but he wanted to discuss about clan name with Titan and Bluebell first. It wasn’t his fault that Titan went out for a date and Bluebell was barely coherent.

Last night, after Kartia, Peter brought Bluebell hunting at the Swampland to level up their Dual Class (Bluebell’s Dual Class was Yul Archer). However, they only hunted for thirty minutes or so when she suddenly stopped attacking. Even when Peter waited and waited for her to respond, her character was standing still like statue. Thinking that she probably fell asleep, Peter left to the nearest town and logged off.

**[whisper]Bluebell: ur jackass**

Rolling his eyes at such warm greeting, Peter typed to reply.

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: You fell asleep gdi.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: i got PK’d**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: By your beer?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: urghh no**

**[whisper]Bluebell: player from other clan. used to be our enemy idk.**

PK stood for Player Killer. They killed characters like they killed mobs. Usually, during Clan War, they would kill everyone in the ground to prevent assisting the opposing clan, but there were also PK's who killed for shit and giggles.

**[whisper]Bluebell: my head hurt**

**[whisper]Bluebell: n i just woke up**

Peter turned around to check at the clock on his phone. It was three in the afternoon.

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Well good morning to you, sunshine.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: ill throw up on u**

This sunshine apparently was an angry sunshine. Peter snorted.

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Go wash your face or something. I bet you look awful.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: yes mom**

**[whisper]Bluebell: ugh ur juss like bae**

While waiting for her, Peter chatted with some of his queer friends. Two of them were interested in joining his new clan and would be contacted once Peter formed it. One of them had left their old clan so they would join in once the twenty-four hours penalty from leaving the clan was up. The other was a Dwarf Feoh Wizard (Cross-class, Peter guessed) who had a clan specifically to keep all his loots and crafting materials in his clan warehouse, but agreed to join Peter’s clan by using his other character.

Unfortunately, only two of them were interested in joining. The others were afraid to out themselves by joining a clan for queers. One even told him the story when they were ‘out’ed by assholes in his clan and were bullied mercilessly. They had to change character and start over again because the bullying was too severe. Naturally, they weren’t keen for repeat performance.

**[whisper]Bluebell: can u ress me**

**[whisper]Bluebell: i lost 4% exp :(**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: In a sec, princess.**

Peter sent the party invitation and once it was approved, he chuckled at Bluebell’s empty combat and health point bar. He checked the map and saw a green dot with her name somewhere in the Swampland. Apparently, she hadn’t moved from her place since Peter left her.

He switched back to his Main Class, just in case anyone going to mess up with him. He buffed up and summoned his Grim Reapers, then teleported to the Swampland. Apparently, there had been a clan war on the teleporting spot, judging from a couple of dead characters littered the ground, waiting to be resurrected (some of them had the gall to ask Peter to ress them). Quickly, Peter summoned his horse and scampered off. Now that he wanted to start a new clan, he wasn’t going to get involved in another clans’ feud.

The spot Peter used to hunt the night before was a bit secluded, quite close from Shilen’s Temple but hidden from plain sight with hills surrounding it. It was easy to miss the spot so naturally, it was supposed to be safe from PK’s, which was why Peter didn’t understand how in the fresh hell Bluebell got killed. Whoever this PK, they had to be thoroughly sweeping the ground or using illegal software like L2Walker.

**[party]Bluebell: i tougt theres war here last night**

**[party]Bluebell: wen i woke up i read da chatlogs**

**[party]Bluebell:  all 8 heroes r here**

Heroes were players who held the highest ranking in the Olympiad, a monthly-based player versus player tournament. There was only one Hero in an Awakening class, and they would be replaced by another player if they couldn’t keep up their rank. Peter held the Hero rank twice, but he thought it was very inconvenient title to keep. The competition was too rough and dirty. Other players weren’t below using two or more characters for easy kill.

In clan wars, Heroes were feared because they had their own special skills and buffs. If that wasn’t enough, they also had Hero weapon which would give the Hero some ridiculous amount of additional stats. To have all eight Heroes participating in a war meant a fucking massacre. Peter pitied those clan war participants who fell victims to those bloodlust hounds.

Peter spotted Bluebell’s character lying on the ground. He clicked her name and used the Blessed Scroll of Resurrection item. It gave back the four percent EXP lost from dying. Of course, the item itself wasn’t cheap, but Peter got some stacks from all those raids he did while in clan.

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You owe me one.**

**[party]Bluebell: sure ill ress u one time then i wont ress u again until u pay me**

Ooh, someone was being sulky today.

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Jk, don’t do that please.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Sun of my life.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: My moon and stars.**

**[party]Bluebell: ew gross**

**[party]Bluebell: take ur sexuality away from my poor asexual self**

So she remembered Peter’s chat from last night. If she were sober, he knew she would use it against him, but he didn’t know she was coherent enough to remember it.

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: I never have any ace friend so can you tell me something?**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Is it true you aces will shrivel and die from seeing porns?**

**[party]Bluebell: idk do u gays shrivel and die from seeing vags?**

Peter laughed at her bluntness.

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: … Well, not die, but very serious case of bleeding eyes I think.**

\--

Fantasy Island was a mob-free area where you could play mini games. From the mini games, you could collect coins to trade them with various head accessories. The accessories gave nothing to a character except looking cute (Peter liked to collect head accessories and some of them were dumb so shut up).

Since the day before Castle War was usually bloody and less safe to hunt, Peter took Bluebell to the Fantasy Island along with two other players. In two hours, Peter’s coins were enough to trade with a Clownfish Hat. He put it on his character. Meanwhile, Bluebell was wearing a Pig Hat, which was only available in game as Shadow Item. It would disappear in three days.

**[whisper]Bluebell: why its shadow item whyyyyy**

**[whisper]Bluebell: its so dumb i want 1000000000000**

Her chat sounded so dejected that Peter wanted to laugh. They explored the island and Peter took a couple of screenshots of their character posing while wearing dumb hats. Even if Peter had visited this area several times, there were places that he missed before. The environment was so beautiful and colorful and Peter fell in love with this game all over again.

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: You know, we’re being grossly heterosexuals.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Going to amusement park and stuffs.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: i bet ur dat kind of bf who like to show ur machoness to ur gf in shooting range**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I bet you’re the one who throws up because you can’t handle rollercoaster but still going in the line for the 4th time.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: shutup thats only happend twice**

\--

Peter’s character, Bluebell, TitaniumTitan, and two other characters were sitting in a circle in front of Rune Township’s warehouse. They were in a party so they could talk privately.

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Right, so hi.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: You all know why you’re here.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Also I want to ask your opinion about our clan name.**

**[party]SirDouglas78: how about QueerlyBeloved?**

**[party]QueenBasilia: LMFAO**

Peter quickly typed before the discussion about their clan name got heated up.

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Actually I have a name, I want to ask you if it’s alright.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: RainbowRanger?**

Nervously, he tapped his fingers to the desk while waiting for their answers.

[ **party]Bluebell: thats p cool**

**[party]SirDouglas78: fine with me anyway**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: yeah, me too.**

**[party]QueenBasilia: LOL it’s like we’re some kind of gay rangers, spreading terror to unsuspecting heteros.**

**[party]Bluebell: LOL LOL LOL**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Ok guys, I’m going to make the clan now.**

He clicked the action to make his character stand, then talked to the NPC Warehouse Chief. He inputted the clan name. It was done quickly it felt a bit anticlimatic.

 **  
**Their clan was now officially formed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you sooooo much for your kudos and comments!
> 
> it's monday morning here, so i think i'm going to post chapter 4 before IRL overwhelms me. so yeah. you're welcome :3
> 
> i have nothing to add about the game in this chapter, since mostly it's about peter being angsty teenager. but there's this acronym, PPDC, which stands for Pan-Pacific Defense Corps. it's from Pacific Rim movie.
> 
> enjoy the chapter! :3

Sunday morning, Peter went out early to walk the dogs. He loved it partly because the extra penny and partly because it helped him working out. Peter hated working out and he avoided PE like plague. This way, at least he had no choice but working his lazy ass off.

 

His usual route was two laps around the block then out to the nearest park, which was two blocks away. It was enough to get some sweat but not enough to make him wheezing like some kind of sick boy.

 

The dogs; a lab, a pitbull, and a goddamn St. Bernard; were quite energetic that morning. Ellie the pitbull loved greeting new peoples. Josie the lab was extremely curious to stuffs like birds and car horns. Kenny the St. Bernard, however, _loved_ tackling people to the ground and probably was the hardest to handle because the dog was big and Peter was practically a twig no matter how much the amount of food his aunt shoving down his throat. In Aunt May’s eyes, Peter was still underweight and needed as many food as possible.

 

They were nearing the park when Peter lost his grip to Kenny’s leash. The goddamn dog leaped and tackled someone on the jogging track. He rushed to the person, blabbering apologies.

 

“Oh my goodness! I’m sorry! I’m so very _very_ sorry!”

 

As he came nearer, however, he realized the person Kenny had tackled to the ground was _Harry Osborn_.

 

Peter hated his shit luck sometimes.

 

“No! Off!” Harry glared at the dog. “Off!”

 

Peter pulled Kenny’s leash to get him off from Harry. Kenny whined and shuffled nervously, but Peter ignored him to help Harry up. Harry was still glaring at the dog.

 

“Don’t do that again!” the blond pointed. Kenny whined again. “No! Don’t do that again!”

 

Kenny let out a long whine and circled to hide behind Peter, who sighed. “You heard him, buddy.”

 

“No, no. You’re doing it wrong. You need to be firmer to him so he’ll understand that he can’t do that”, Harry rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t understand what you said. Now he thinks he’s protecting you from bad man who yelled at him because the man doesn’t want to play.”

 

Huh. Peter didn’t know that. “Don’t do that again!” Peter tried, his voice thankfully firmer than before. “It’s bad. So don’t do that again.”

 

Kenny looked subdued. Peter counted it as a win. “Huh, thanks, I guess?” he said (mumbled) to Harry. Harry either didn’t hear him or was ignoring him for the sake of patting dusts away from his black shirt (which had a PPDC logo on it).

 

Still embarrassed, Peter busying himself by tightening the leashes on his hand. Glancing from the corner of his eyes, he saw a reddening scratch on Harry’s exposed elbow. It looked awful on his pale white skin and probably hurt too, considering its length.

 

“Uh, really sorry about that”, he grimaced, nodding at the scratch. Harry turned his elbow and raised his eyebrows, as if only realizing its presence.

 

“Huh, must be when I hugged that cat”, Peter heard him muttering.

 

“What cat?” Peter raised his eyebrows, curious

 

“Um, there’s this calico living in this park, you know? The she-devil just gave birth to four kittens so I thought I might pay her a visit. She scratched me instead”, Harry explained, rubbing the scratch absentmindedly. “Even though I brought her offering.”

 

At Peter’s raised eyebrows, he clarified. “Cat food.”

 

Peter couldn’t help the mental image of Harry trying to placate an angry cat-momma with dried cat food on his outstretched palm. Ugh, that was so ridiculously adorable.

 

“So… you like cats?”

 

If he was embarrassed before, now he wanted to bang his head to the nearest flat surface. But since the nearest flat surface happened to be either the ground below or Harry’s chest (okay stop that line of thinking right there, Peter Parker), he hunched down and shuffled his feet instead.

 

“And dogs”, Harry replied curtly. “But I… hadn’t had any since last time.”

 

“What happened?” Peter asked. He hoped he wasn’t being too nosey, but Harry replied him with the same nonchalance.

 

“Oh, I got my puppy spayed. Nothing awful, if the stupid vet knew one of his case was infected with distemper. When I took her home, she infected my other dogs. A week later, all four of them died”, Harry ended his story with pained look on his face. Peter winced.

 

“Ouch. That’s really terrible.”

 

“It was”, Harry nodded solemnly. “I got my cats now though, sooo…” He gave small shrug.

 

“How many cats do you have?” Peter perked up. He thought Harry lived in some fancy penthouse apartment that didn’t allow house pets. But then again, he didn’t know where Harry had lived and he certainly didn’t know that Harry was a cat person before.

 

“Sixteen?” At Peter’s horrified look, Harry laughed—he fucking laughed, and he was _beautiful_ with his bright blue eyes twinkling in amusement. “Just kidding. It’s six.”

 

“S _ix?!_ ” Peter exclaimed incredulously, then shook his head. That was still a few cats too many! He didn’t know anyone who got that many cats. One of Peter’s neighbor had two of them little devils and Peter himself got none (vet bill was horrific; Peter thought he might fainted when his neighbor asked him to get her dog for regular check-up, though granted, it wasn’t his own money to pay the bill).

 

Now that Peter knew what to look, the scratch on his elbow definitely looked like a cat scratch. Not only that—up this close, Peter noticed that Harry’s fingers were littered with tiny scratches; some were old and some were new. His well-worn shirt definitely got cat hairs stuck on it (Peter imagined from hugging or carrying cats) and its sleeves got tiny holes, probably from cats’ claws.

 

Correction, Harry Osborn wasn’t a cat person; he was a crazy cat person.

 

“I know”, Harry groaned, but he was still smiling wide. “And they like to sleep on my bed too, so I have to, you know, _maneuver_ around them.”

 

Peter was smiling as Harry gestured his hand to make his point. He was still describing his cats’ many quirks and he was very expressive too, gesturing with his hands. It was probably the most expressive Peter had saw him. Not that he saw Harry often at school, but the other boy had quite a reputation at school. The Osborn boy, who looked like his father and as smart as his father. The richest guy at school. The most popular kid who dated the smartest girl at school. Before Peter was just a teenage who loved cats a little bit too much, even going as far to try hugging an angry stray cat.

 

There was a comfortable silence as they sat on a park bench. Peter had unclasped the leashes and let the dogs frolicking at the grass. Harry bought him a cold canned chai (despite Peter’s flustered protests), and after that, the silence broke. They talked about school (Peter was grateful he wasn’t blabbering like an idiot). Harry even asked if Peter could help designing something. Apparently, Gwen had told Harry that Peter was designing logo for bands, so Harry wanted to know if Peter could help Gwen’s friend, Mary Jane (president of theatre club, Peter’s mind supplied), designing her newly founded comedy group.

 

The sun was already high when Peter went back home and there was spring on his steps. His mom, who was watching TV on the living room, noticed him bouncing.

 

“Meeting someone while you’re out walking dogs?” his mom teased. Peter blushed furiously. “Ah, a girl?”

 

Maybe it was because of his meeting with Harry and finding out about his crush’ obsession to cats, or noticing the way Harry’s slender hands moved as he was retelling stories, or realizing just how _pale_ and _beautiful_ Harry’s blonde hair under the sunlight, that brought him this courage.

 

“It was a boy, actually”, he mumbled.

 

There was a pause when he waited his mom for saying something, anything. He couldn’t bear the thought of her hating him, or see rejection in her eyes, so he hunched down and stared at his feet.

 

“Oh, what was he like?” his mom asked.

 

Peter couldn’t believe his ears. His mom just asked _‘what was he like’_ , as if unfazed from Peter’s confession. But there on her face, there was only genuine curiosity instead of rejection. He felt weight lifted off from his shoulders.

 

“Tell me what was he like?” his mom repeated, there was twinkle in her eyes. “I know that you have good taste, Peter. So, is he handsome?”

 

Peter spluttered at her questions.

 

“Mooooom!” he groaned (though probably with that tone, he sounded more like whining). “He’s just a _friend!_ ”

 

Mary Parker, however, was nothing but stubborn. When Peter ducked to avoid her, she trailed behind him instead.

 

“Is he your school friend? Oh! Don’t tell me he’s that guy you brought over here! What was his name? Andy? Arnie?” his mom barrelled.

 

Peter groaned, embarrassed, and quickly slipped into the bathroom. He thought he heard his mom snickering before he closed the door.

 

Well, it was good that his mom was nothing but accepting. But still, was it _really necessary_ to ask those questions?

 

\--

 

The empty chai tea can in his palm was warm.

 

After the euphoria had receded and reality hit him on the face like a ton block of concrete, Peter had been lying on his bed, moping like an angsty teenager he was. Why in the actual hell had he fallen for a straight guy, someone who was so popular on top of that? As if being a closeted gay wasn’t hard enough. As if getting picked on _daily basis_ was not hard enough. From the entire male population in Midtown Science High School, Peter had to fall in love to a _straight_ guy.

 

Ritu Ghatourey said, “Sometimes it's best not to think too much and just trust what your heart knows…” Well, that was bullshit. His heart guided him to the straightest guy at school. Even when Peter knew that the whole school knew Harry Osborn was dating Gwen Stacy, he still couldn’t get over the fact that he had foolishly fallen for Harry.

 

The events happened today had proved him all over again that nope, he wasn’t over his crush to Harry Osborn. If any, it had made his crush even bigger and it felt like a big ‘Fuck You’ to him courtesy of Peter’s shit luck. Before, he didn’t know how enthusiastic Harry was talking about his cats. Before, he didn’t see up close the way the eyes of man he’d been crushing would twinkle when talking about his cats, like children at Christmas day. Before, he didn’t see up close about the tiny scars littering Harry’s fingers, but still didn’t faze him from hugging an angry stray cat, or the cat hairs stuck seemingly permanently on his shirt.

 

Peter had seen another side of Harry Osborn that he didn’t know before and apparently, it made him fall in love again.

 

Putting the empty canned chai on his desk, just next to his computer’s monitor, Peter was thinking if he might be a masochist.

 

\--

 

Because Peter was an escapist, he logged on to his Lineage 2 account instead of fixing his own problem. Granted, he logged in later than usual because Peter had spent a few good hours moping and listening to sad love songs. It certainly didn’t help anything, but he didn’t care.

 

**[clan]Bluebell: fnally**

**[clan]Bluebell: i was lookin 4 u**

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: Hi. What’s up?**

 

Peter’s eyes caught the empty can just next to his monitor, sitting innocuously like it had done nothing wrong in the world. He shoved it away a little, just so his monitor would hopefully cover it from his sight. But alas, he could see the thing.

 

His mind replayed again the memory when Harry had offered it to him. The can was still cold from being in the machine and Peter’s fingers brushed slightly against Harry.

 

Peter groaned. His head made a dull thud as it hit the surface of his desk.

 

**[clan]Bluebell: nothig**

**[clan]Bluebell: ur late**

**[clan]Bluebell: usually ure online around 12**

 

Huh. He didn’t know she would be noticing his online schedule.

 

**[clan]SpiderSummoner: Sorry. Caught up with something.**

 

Peter got up and grabbed the empty can. However, when he wanted to chuck it into his trash bin, he just… couldn’t bring himself to. The thing was practically the first thing he got from Harry. Even if he had to live and deal with Harry’s heterosexuality, he didn’t think he could just forget his massive crush as if nothing like that.

 

He groaned again and slumped back to his chair.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: wats up?**

 

Peter blinked at the whisper chat appeared in his chat box.

 

The first thing Peter had learned about basic survival in the internet, was that he couldn’t divulge personal information too much. But this… thing… should be harmless enough, right? It was just a stupid crush and his own inability to deal with it, after all.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Saw this guy today.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummoner: He’s, uh. My crush.**

 

Ugh. He sounded like 12 years old with a crush. Except that he was a 15 years old with a crush.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: aww**

**[whisper]Bluebell: then wats the problm?**

 

Peter chewed his lower lips as he was typing.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: He’s straight.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummoner: And he has a girlfriend.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: ouch**

**[whisper]Bluebell: dat hurt**

**[whisper]Bluebell: kill her**

**[whisper]Bluebell: ill help u dump her body**

 

Unintentionally, Peter laughed at that. Trust Bluebell and her morbid humor to solve his problem.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummoner: I don’t think I can do that, but thx for the input btw.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: yw**

 

Giving up, finally Peter rose again, grabbed the empty can, and chucked it into his wardrobe. When he returned to his desk, there was another chat from Bluebell.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: wna hunt?**

 

Maybe he was an escapist. Maybe he was a masochist.

 

Maybe he was both.

  
**[whisper]SpiderSummoner: Ok.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> right, since i forgot to warn y'all last chapter, i want to clarify that from this chapter onwards, i will update once a week. this way, i will be able to finish three chapters ahead so you don't have to worry about me abandoning this fic :p
> 
> i don't think i need to explain anything since anything needs explaining is already explained in the fic.
> 
> THANKSSSS FOR COMMENTS + KUDOS GUYS. if you have question or prompt, just throw it here or on my [tumblr](http://sadbabyosborn.tumblr.com/ask)

The next few days, Peter was determined to avoid Harry at school. Unfortunately, his determination only resulted in a big ‘Challenge Accepted, Bro’ by courtesy of the universe; because the more Peter was trying to avoid Harry, the more he noticed him in every corners of the school.

Peter noticed Harry speaking animatedly at Gwen at school cafeteria during lunch, his hands waving around excitedly and Peter secretly wanted to know what they were talking about before he sulked back into his jealousy. He noticed the way Harry smiling adorably to his classmates when the other boy passed the corridors and laughing at their jokes; the corners of his eyes crinkling in honest amusement. He noticed Harry sitting solemnly on the bench by the fields. He noticed Harry sleeping in his car during breaks. He noticed Harry in the library, on the school grounds, and even at teacher’s room one time when Peter had to submit his photographs of school clubs that one time.

Even more annoyingly, he started seeing Harry everywhere. In the news board, photos of Harry were smiling at him as he passed. From time to times, pap scoops of him were popping up on the TV or some random news website (and Peter had to admit, Harry looked cute in baggy sweaters, even if he looked so grossly hipster). It felt like Peter was being haunted by an extremely persistent ghost and, _oh God_ , he just wanted to laugh because how ridiculous it was? Maybe it was karma for secretly not-stalking Harry for years.

He still came to the park when he was walking the dogs, torn between hoping to see a glimpse of Harry or wanting to hide at the first sight. Each time he saw Harry cooing over the calico she-devil, Peter always had to resist not to throw himself into the fountain. Yet, he always returned there every afternoon after the school and every Sunday morning. He didn’t even know whether he actually wanted to see Harry or he was trying to torture himself to death.

Worse, Harry started appearing at night, in his dreams as blue eyed demon with wicked smile. And his mind was very _creative_ in conjuring up ideas—it even made up Harry’s naked body, which Peter actually was sure he had never, ever ever ever ever ever ever ever _ever_ , seen because he was certain he wasn’t in that level of creepy _yet_. Some of them were quite… to put it lightly, kinky. Peter honestly didn’t know whether he should be ashamed of himself or appalled. It complicated everything too, because each time Peter saw Harry, his mind would swerve into _that_ direction.

(He especially started to notice just how pretty Harry’s lips were. He wondered if he wore lip gloss because it seemed like too pink to be natural. He wondered how those lips would look like wrapped his—wow, okay, stop right there, _you were in a goddamn public place, Peter Parker!_ )

The empty can in Peter’s wardrobe was still there. On the fifteenth day since that damned morning in the park, Peter had enough and took it out. He cleaned it and put it back on his desk, this time with a few sad looking fake flowers sticking out of its mouth hole.

\--

If he wanted an escape, well, the situation in game was not any better either. Apparently, the guys from Peter’s old clan were pissed off because Titan, Bluebell, and he were ‘deserting’ (their word) the clan just two days before Castle War, resulting to what (according to them) was the worst defeat. Not only that they were unable to take the castle, they were completely slaughtered even before they broke the first gate. Peter somehow doubted that even with the three of them, they could take the castle. Maybe they were just suck and tried to put the blame to Peter, Bluebell, and Titan.

But then the guys on Peter’s old clan started hunting the three of them. Whenever Peter, Bluebell, and Titan went out hunting, they had to be extra careful because enemies could be sneaking behind them. When they were unable to kill either one of them, they resorted to kill Peter’s new clan members, especially those with lower levels. It was really dirty. Players under level 75 got slaughtered in the hunting ground just because they were members of Peter’s new clan. Granted, most of them were second characters who had main characters of higher level so they could strike back by using their main character.

Peter and other higher level members started to guard their juniors while they hunted, which usually escalated into a full scale war if they were found out. More often than not, Peter had to order a hasty retreat because they were outnumbered by five times and more. Most of their clan members were seasoned PvP'ers, but even they couldn't stand against the full might of one of the largest and oldest clan in game.

As if that was not enough, one of the Heroes somehow found out that Titan was gay and _blabbed_ about it on Hero’s chat. Soon, the whole server knew about it, because Hero’s chats were broadcasted to every online player on the server, which made it even more awful. Of course, not too long after, other heroes were joining in to the bashing. The words they were spouting were so awful that Peter was close to strangling someone. Fortunately, none of them knew that Titan was apparently a girl or that their whole clan was full of queers. If they knew, sexism and bigotry fest would explode.

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: just turn off hero chat if that bothers you.**

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: i turned off mine.**

Peter conceded to her idea and turned off his Hero’s chat, but he still wanted to strangle someone.

**[clan]QueenBasilia: i can’t believe i lost to guy like that.**

**[clan]Bluebell: ur tryn for hero?**

**[clan]QueenBasilia: yeah**

Hjaldr was one of the Heroes who started fanning the issue that Titan was gay. The guy was an Iss Enchanter whose PvP skill was meagre (on Peter’s standard). It wasn’t really surprising guys like that could be a Hero, if you considered the backup he got from his clan. Sometimes he wondered how on Earth this corrupt system could invade in-game world.

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: that’s a pretty good idea actually.**

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: i mean, having either one of us as hero.**

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: that way we can talk back when they start spouting bigotry.**

That… was brilliant idea. Huh. Why didn’t he thought about it?

So at weekends, Peter spent his pent-up unresolved sexual tension-related frustration into his opponents at the Grand Olympiad tournament. Okay, it probably was sixty-five percent UST-related frustration and thirty-five percent desire to win, but he was _merciless_. Even when facing Bluebell or anyone from his clan, he didn’t hold back and always gave his best.

At weekdays, or any days where Grand Olympiad was not held, he honed his PvP skill through Ceremony of Chaos. It seemed to improve his ability in the open war too, because soon his enemies started targeting either him or Bluebell first (Bluebell he could understand, since she was a healer).

When he was not doing either Olympiad or Ceremony of Chaos, he started sweeping the hunting ground. The Heroes were still using Titan as the butt of their nasty jokes and Peter was determined to hunt them and defeat them. He stopped doing daily quests, mostly because Seed of Hellfire (or any hunting grounds, really) was usually packed and guarded by enemies. He didn’t even realize he was turning into a bloodlust hound himself, until Bluebell confronted him.

**[whisper]Bluebell: ur diffrent now**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: What?**

He was thirty seconds before entering the Coliseum—the last Olympiad fight that month—when Bluebell whispered him. His mind was torn between wanting to muster up a reply to her and to concentrate exterminating his enemy. He checked the timer. Still enough time for a bit chat.

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: What do you mean?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: well u nvr wanna hunt anymre**

**[whisper]Bluebell: i feel like were on war evrytime**

Peter was about to type a reply when he was sent off to the Coliseum. He quickly apologized to Bluebell and started buffing up. His enemy was someone who used to be a Hero in Wynn Summoner class a few months back, so it was quite a fight. In the end, they didn’t manage to kill each other, but Peter won because he gave more damage. He put his head on his hands and took a deep breath.

**[whisper]Bluebell: congrats**

Peter peeked at his monitor from the gap between his fingers. He ruffled his hair and typed.

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Thanks.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Also I don’t know what to say.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: s ok**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Sorry…**

He really didn’t know what to say. He knew that though Bluebell was good at PvP, she didn’t like constant war like they’d been at the past few weeks. As a healer, she always got targeted and killed first. That was only logical strategy in clan war. But when she died, naturally, as a healer she would get resurrected by Iss Enchanter’s resurrection skill, which only returned thirty percent of her lost EXP. If she died several times, which she usually did, she would lose a considerable amount of EXP by the end of the war.

Peter knew that Bluebell worked hard to get EXP, maybe even harder than him; because if her EXP bar reached zero percent, she would get a level down to level 98 and she wouldn’t be able to use her level 99 grade armor and weapon. Peter knew that she would go hunting for hours and hours to collect spare EXP, so she wouldn’t worry when she was in a clan war. However, Peter had neglected his daily quests for the sake of PvP and thus neglected in helping her getting a spare EXP she needed. Peter felt immensely guilty for that.

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Hey, I’m really sorry about that.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I’m an idiot.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: ur unblievble**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Sorry.**

Peter groaned. He fucked up. He fucked up big time. His obsession in getting Hero title plus obsession in trying to rid of his stupid teenage crush had probably destroyed one of the very few good things in life. He might didn’t know Bluebell IRL, but he always felt… connected to her. She was seriously funny and witty though sometimes she joked about Peter’s ridiculous crush to a hetero, which actually hurt, but he never had the heart to get offended by her because she was only teasing him and maybe trying to cheer him up in her own way and— _God_ , he needed to stop because this train of thought was so derailed.

**[whisper]Bluebell: u say sorry again ill feed u to valakas**

Valakas was one of two dragon bosses in game, which according to the story was one of Shilen’s children. Like its brother, Antharas, you would need seven parties to down a Valakas. It was a rare occurrence to down the dragon bosses.

It seemed like Bluebell wasn’t that angry if she still cracked a joke, though it wasn’t a hundred percent guarantee.

Peter’s name came out as the Hero for Wynn Summoner class the next month. He took his prize and was about to choose which Hero’s weapon he would take, when Bluebell invited him to the party.

**[party]Bluebell: ill wait u in soh**

**[party]Bluebell: fuk da enemies**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: we’ll clean it up for you.**

**[party]TitaniumTitan: and congrats spidey! ^^**

Peter smiled. He just felt so warm inside. Maybe there was still hope for him.

**[clan]SirDouglas78: w00t we got a hero in clan!!!**

**[clan]Ellemere: congrats leader! :)**

**[clan]QueenBasilia: at least all those times ignoring us paid off huh *wink wink***

He winced. Uh, okay, he definitely needed to resolve that mess and start paying attention to his own goddamn clan member.

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: Thanks guys.**

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: And really sorry for this past month.**

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: Next time just slap me hard if I make an ass of myself.**

**[clan]Bluebell: jus shut up n get ur ass here**

**[clan]Bluebell: i wan 2 screenshot me w/ a hero**

Rolling his eyes, he took the Infinity Retributer weapon and teleported to the Seed of Hellfire. He got a whiny clan member to take care of.

And well, maybe there was still something he could salvage from this.

\--


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you're not familiar with LGBT+ terms, GAAB is an acronym to gender assigned at birth, which refers to the set of genitalia you're born with. it's an outdated way to determine gender since some people aren't born with the correct set of genitalia, hormones, or such.
> 
> from this chapter onward, Bluebell will be referred as 'they' as they don't specify their preferred pronoun. sure, IRL they're assigned by he IRL, but since this fic follows peter's POV and peter wants to assign his clan members with the correct pronoun, i will refer Bluebell with their gender neutral pronoun.
> 
> if it's not clear enough for you:  
> Peter Parker (SpiderSummonerr) gay, cis, gender preference male  
> Gwen Stacy (TitaniumTitan) lesbian, cis, gender preference female  
> Harry Osborn (Bluebell) asexual, agender, gender preference male (IRL) neutral (in-game)
> 
> thank you for reading this story!! i will be a wee bit busy with job interview and the likes, but i will try and update once a week as usual :3

Now that summer holiday had started, Peter got the time and space he needed away from Harry Osborn. Oh, he still got the wet dreams occasionally, but he found out if he slept at three in the morning and totally bagged, he would be too tired to dream anything. He still got hard-ons in the morning and his mind still swerved back to the flashes of light brown hair and piercing blue eyes whenever he took care of it, but Peter was so used to live in the land of denial. He could easily pretend that he was imagining _someone else_. After all, it wasn’t like Harry Osborn was the only person on Earth to have brown hair and blue eyes.

 

Peter got a job in Mrs. Wang’s place where he worked as janitor. It was a dirty work and could pretty exhausting too if you got large families eating and generally making a total mess, but Mrs. Wang paid him nicely. Aside from the fact that he’d known Mrs. Wang since the beginning of time (she was friends with Aunt May so she knew their family history), Peter never came up late and never slacked off like playing with his phone during shift (he didn’t have anything to do with his phone except for listening music anyway). She often sent him home with a container of leftovers too, plenty enough for Peter’s family to have a decent dinner that wasn’t Aunt May’s meatloaves for once.

 

When he wasn’t out in Mrs. Wang’s place or helping his Mom and Aunt May cleaning and fixing their slowly crumbling house, he mostly holed up in his room. To make up for neglecting his clan members, Peter registered his clan for Fortress War every weekend. After all, their clan still got no basecamp like Clan Hall for them to assemble during war. He definitely needed to find a Clan Hall, but for now a Fortress sounded good enough. It helped them to increase their Clan Reputation points too, which would be needed for increasing their Clan Level. Plus, the items which was dropped by the Fortress Guards during the war could be traded for a lot of useful items. There was also an instance dungeon that could be accessed only by owning a Fortress.

 

Now that he got a decent amount of high-level members, he could start scheduling raid bosses. Istina for level 90 and above, and Octavis for level 95 and above. He also helped level 85 to level 90 members doing Teredor, a dungeon boss that could be accessed repeatedly a day, by using his Dual Class.

 

All loots they got from raids were put into Clan Warehouse so members could bid on it by using activity point. It was a system Peter learned from other raid-hunter clans, so he might as well try and apply it to his own clan. Members got their points by partaking in clan activities like raids and Fortress Wars. Peter kept tabs on his members’ points in a password-protected blog, where clan members could access it and see if their points were enough to bid.

 

Thankfully, now that they rarely went out hunting (after all, raid bosses and instance dungeon quests gave quite a decent amount of EXP), they rarely partaking in clan war, only occasional skirmishes when they were ambushed on their way to raid bosses. They still got taunts from other clans, but it was more subdued after Peter got his Hero title. The fact that Peter’s old clan was successfully winning a castle might helped to wind down the tension too. All in all, it was pretty good.

 

Peter was playing in Fantasy Island with Bluebell (who insisted Peter to help her getting another Pig Hat), when the topic was brought up.

 

**[clan]XxXAikoTanXxX: so guys, can i know your pronoun?**

 

XxXAikoTanXxX was their newest member who joined three days ago. She was a MTF trans girl and QueenBasilia’s friend in their old clan. A few years back, somehow somebody at the forum managed to find her FB page and spread the nasty info that she was a ‘tranny’ at the forum. Of course, the mods banned said user permanently, but the resulting shitstorm was too bad for her that she had to face a lot of taunting and bullying. She changed characters from time to time each time someone found out that she was a trans girl. This Dwarf female Aeore Healer was her third character since she first registered.

 

She and QueenBasilia knew a bit about some queer groups hidden in the game and promised to talk them into the clan. Peter was happy enough that his clan was safe for trans people to join in, but the prospect of his clan growing made him feel giddy.

 

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: I’m using male pronoun.**

**[clan]QueenBasilia: i’m they pronoun**

**[clan]QueenBasilia: genderfluid person here ^^**

 

Everyone were following his fashion and replied with their preferred pronoun. 

 

**[clan]TitaniumTitan: i’m a girl IRL**

**[clan]XxXAikoTanXxX: NO WAY?????????**

**[clan]SirDouglas78: wat!!!!**

**[clan]SirDouglas78: for real????**

**[clan]SirDouglas78: but ur not playing like a girl!!!!!**

 

The bomb had been dropped. Peter wisely held himself from commenting as Titan made a lengthy reply on how gamer girls were supposed to play the game. Fake gamer girl meme was brought up several times, much to Peter’s annoyance. In the end, he watched the clan chat box amusedly as Titan and XxXAikoTanXxX ‘educated’ the cis guys in the clan about gender stereotyping. The girls even asked them to stop doing that or else they were going to ‘unleash hell’ (Titan’s words) each time someone made a sexist remark. As someone who had witnessed TitaniumTitan the human panzer slaughtering everyone in the Ceremony of Chaos while under attack of four enemies the night before, Peter had to admit that those scary girls could and would make true to their threat—and not even Peter, either as clan lord or as a Hero, could stop them.

 

He closed the discussion by putting another rule in clan announcement that each time someone made a sexist remark, a hundred raid points would be deducted from _everyone_ in the clan—just like they would be punished for making homophobic/transphobic remark. Hopefully, this would make all members reminding each other not to chat anything hurtful and/or degrading in the chat clan and make the clan more comfortable for everyone. He also added in the clan chat box.

 

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: You can be gay as a rainbow but you need to be respectful to all genders.**

 

At two in the morning, Peter was about to log off when he realized that someone had missed from replying XxXAikoTanXxX’s earlier question. He checked the online members listed in clan interface and typed a whisper.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Hey you’re still awake?**

 

Ten minutes passed without reply, so Peter whispered Titan next.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Bluebell is not answering my whisper, is she ok?**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: uh.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: just between us, because i trust you, ok?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Yeah, I promise I won’t tell anyone.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: What’s happened?**

 

The topic sounded serious. Peter turned on the light over his desk again when he sensed this would take a while. As he waited for Titan’s reply, he chewed his lip nervously.

 

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: uh ok… so bluebell is actually a he**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: oh god he’ll kill me if he knows**

 

Peter blinked. Okay, _wait a moment._

 

Bluebell was a guy…? Bluebell. Was. A _guy?!_

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: You’re kidding.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: How come I don’t know this?**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: well, you never asked.**

 

Ooookay, she might have a point. Peter tried to remember if he ever asked about Bluebell’s gender and failed. He sighed. Maybe that was very cis of him to assume that everyone who played male character was a guy and female character a girl, which was actually not true. Titan was a stellar example for that. If he wanted to make this clan a better place for queer players, he certainly had to educate himself and stop guessing one’s gender before he asked first.

 

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: the whole gender discussion was pretty triggering for him.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Oh.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: so when AikoTan asked that question, he freaked out and about to drink himself stupid.**

 

Peter reeled at that.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Oh.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Oh fuck. I’m so sorry!!**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: no, don’t be. that’s a perfect situation to educate the guys anyway.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: But he’s ok now???**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: yeah i sent him to his bedroom earlier, which i cleaned from all substances by the way.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: btw i’m gonna check him in a bit.**

 

Worry nagged in Peter’s head. So, Bluebell was a he and apparently the topic about gender was enough to trigger him. But why…? He supposed he should ask Bluebell later… once he was up for discussion. Or he could ask Titan instead so he wouldn’t trigger Bluebell again.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Um, if it’s alright, do you mind telling me why it’s triggering to him?**

 

Peter tapped his fingers to his desk.

 

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: his dad’s a bigot.**

 

Peter waited for a moment, but there was no more reply from Titan, so he guessed that was that. He tried to put it in order. Bluebell’s dad was a bigot, so probably he was against everything that wasn’t heterosexual and/or cissexual. Bluebell’s pronoun was a he, but that could be his gender assigned at birth and not his preferred gender.

 

But what was Bluebell’s preferred gender? Bluebell had never disclosed his (her?) preferred pronoun in game and Peter had been quick to assume that he was a girl. Peter tried to remember each time he made heterosexual joke, which usually put Bluebell in female role. So Bluebell could be either comfortable in female gender or he wasn’t comfortable enough to tell Peter to stop using female pronoun. The possibility of someone he’d known for ages not comfortable enough to correct his very cissexist mistake made him cringe.

 

Mind still whirling, Peter bid Titan goodnight and logged off. He supposed he had to ask Bluebell later. He fell asleep still thinking various lines that wouldn’t be triggering for Bluebell.

 

\--

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Hey can I ask you something?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: What’s your preferred pronoun?**

 

Peter cringed at his own bluntness. He could have chosen any lines that wasn’t _that_ blunt, but once he saw the notification that Bluebell was now online, all thoughts went out the window and Peter ended up blurting the first thought crossing his mind. For not the first time in his life, he cursed his ability to communicate to people… or lack thereof.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I’m sorry that was very stupid of me.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Please don’t reach for your drink, it’s too early for beer by the way.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: fugck pidey m noot aewake nough for tihs**

 

Now that he noticed it, Bluebell tended to curse. Well… that couldn’t be a sign that Bluebell was a dude because dudes liked to curse. After all, he’d seen Titan curse during war and Peter believed her curses were so bad she could make the most vulgar pirate weep.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: It’s 8, princess.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: dun caer**

**[whisper]Bluebell: its smumer break**

**[whisper]Bluebell: i wake at 3 in summer bre**

**[whisper]Bluebell: *break**

 

Peter squinted. Was it an attempt to divert from his question?

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Just answer, will you?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I really really want this clan to be comfortable for everyone and that means addressing everyone by their preferred pronoun.**

 

There was an awkward silence that Peter guessed was from either Bluebell trying to regain to his (their?) full consciousness or Bluebell not wanting to reply to his question. He really hoped he wasn’t being too pushy or triggering Bluebell just because he was being an obnoxious ass, and Bluebell was only grabbing a cup of coffee to wake them up.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: i dont rly care either way**

**[whisper]Bluebell: im agender**

**[whisper]Bluebell: but irl im a he**

 

Huh. So, Bluebell was an agender and was forced to used male pronoun because of their bigot dad (and maybe he lived in an environment without support from LGBTQIA+ community and the likes too). It got to be suck, to be assigned by a gender you were not totally comfortable with. Sure, Bluebell might said they were okay with any pronoun, but in the society who only recognized two genders and roles assigned to each gender, that got to be tough having everyone expected you to act like a guy when you were actually not one. As a cisgender male, Peter couldn’t even begin to comprehend with the shits Bluebell had to face every day.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: There, that’s better.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: So I will use they pronoun if you’re okay?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: s’ok**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: By the way sorry I used to think you’re a girl.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: s ok u dont know**

**[whisper]Bluebell: n its funny seeing u struggling w ur heterosexuality**

 

He—No, _they_ didn’t seem offended, so Peter was quite relieved. And definitely embarrassed too. He remembered those times he joked how heterosexual they were. Oh _God_ , he had to be embarrassing himself, huh?

 

Tentatively, Peter tried to crack a joke.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: It’s not funny.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I had a crisis over my newfound heterosexuality.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I lost sleep thinking about being hetero. It’s terrible!!**

**[whisper]Bluebell: ha ha**

**[whisper]Bluebell: brb i need 2 piss**

 

Relieved that the crisis had been averted, Peter started to relax. 

 

\--

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a filler chapter soooo... you're welcome :3
> 
> the 'how asexuals sext' chat between peter and harry is based from my chat with [zapiarty](http://zapiarty.tumblr.com), which opened my eyes that i might or might not be an ace myself uwu
> 
> Formal Wear for Kamael race and Elf race. Wings of Destiny Circlet. Refined Carnival Circlet. [Ribbon Hairband](http://l2wiki.com/Ribbon_Hairband).
> 
> Donquixote Doflamingo
> 
> if you're interested, you can check [my tumblr](http://sadbabyosborn.tumblr.com) (though beware, i'm a multishipper :p)

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Hey, I was thinking the other day.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Do asexuals sext with ‘tell me about dragons’???**

**[whisper]Bluebell: wtf**

**[whisper]Bluebell: sdfkj**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: This is serious. I’m doing science.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Answer the question.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: For science.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: yes it is…………**

 

They paused a bit when Titan went back bringing a train of mobs trailing behind her. Being used to Titan’s crazy mobbing, Peter was only slightly stunned before he sent his servitors to kill.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: wait a sec**

**[whisper]Bluebell: dose that means taht time we chatted about antharas were sexting??????????**

 

Peter remembered that chat. Bluebell were slightly tipsy (or they said so) while Peter was ranting on how ridiculous Antharas’ backstory was. How in the world that humongous thing could come out of Shilen’s vagina? Granted, Shilen’s statue exhibited at the temple of Shilen was quite gigantic, but still…

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: ………………. TBH I… did not realize the implication to my question…….**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Can we forget this conversation?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: yes!!!**

 

\--

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: u sexual ppl r weird**

**[whisper]Bluebell: how cud u think putting dick in ur mouth is gud**

 

Peter choked on water he was drinking when he read the chat.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: u swalow teh spurt??????**

**[whisper]Bluebell: n u piss from there?????????**

 

What. The. Actual fuck.

 

Peter wheezed—he was pretty sure it was water he was drinking running out of his nose. He blindly grabbed for tissue sheets and blew his nose. Once his nose had stopped doing the impression of a leaking tap, he typed his reply.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I dunno. I never try it.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: nvr put dick in ur mouth???**

 

Bluebell was so blunt that Peter was sure his face as red as tomato. It helped, though, that he talked about this topic with someone _with_ penis. At least it wouldn’t be as embarrassing as talking about the same topic with someone _without_ penis. That would be super awkward. And gross.

 

Anyway, yeah, Peter sometimes imagined giving head to… _someone_ (no, brain, not _Harry Osborn_ )… while jerking off. But he never _actually_ tried it. He wanted to give it to someone special and not just some random someone shoving their cock down his throat. Yes, he was a sap, but he was _romantic sap_.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Uh… Yes.**

 

Peter Parker, fellas, a closet case gay geek and blushing virgin.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Look, I really can’t help with your sudden curiosity on sex.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Why don’t you google it?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: k**

 

On the second thought, no, they couldn’t just _google_ a porn. However, before Peter got a chance to type, Bluebell logged off all by sudden, leaving Peter’s character in the middle of Seed of Hellfire. Alone. With aggressive mobs roaming around his character.

 

Rude.

 

Peter waited and waited, not daring to move a step. Yet, when approximately an hour passed, he finally conceded that Bluebell had left him for good and hit the item which would take him back to the Fortress. Still sulky (his daily quest was not finished _yet_ ), he changed to his Dual Class and started a party for Teredor.

 

He was in the middle of his tenth Teredor raid when Bluebell logged back in.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: i gugled porns**

**[whisper]Bluebell: its soooooooo weird**

**[whisper]Bluebell: n grosssssss**

**[whisper]Bluebell: i cant understand u ppl!!!!!**

 

\--

 

Peter bundled up in his bed and feeling miserable. He got a killer headache and his nose was completely clogged.

 

“You must be catching something from Mrs. Wang”, Aunt May said when she brought honeyed hot tea and toasts to his room. Though Peter couldn’t see her face, he was pretty sure she was staring at him with pity.

 

“Ngg dhere’s somb sicg kid yes’rday. Musd be fromb dhere”, Peter replied incoherently. Aunt May handed him the tissue sheets and he caught her wincing when he blew his nose noisily.

 

“Just stay at home, all right? I’ll call Mrs. Wang you came down with cold”, she ruffled Peter’s hair. “And eat your breakfast.”

 

“Don’ dell Momb!” Peter called out when she left the room.

 

\--

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: u didnt online yestrday!!!!**

**[whisper]Bluebell: my piggy hats gone :(**

 

Wow. He missed a day and he got such warm welcome. He could almost feel the love. For real.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I was sick yesterday.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: ummm gws?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I did. Thanks.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Don’t you have rare accessories?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Pretty sure I saw you with Santa’s Antlers.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: its not as dumb as piggy hat >:(**

 

Peter rolled his eyes. He planned to register for Fortress War first thing he was online. It seemed it had to be postponed for a few hours.

 

\--

 

Peter got his Kamael character sitting close to the Gatekeeper in the Town of Aden, wearing a Formal Wear. Next to him, Bluebell’s character was wearing their own Formal Wear too. Too bad there was no wedding system in the game. If there was anything like that, Peter would have proposed to Bluebell ages ago for shits and giggles. He was sure Bluebell would accept it in a heartbeat, just because they could too.

 

The Elf girl was dancing repeatedly while wearing a Fancy Flower Hat on the top of her pink-ish blonde hair, before changing it to Ribbon Hairband, then to Refined Carnival Circlet, and lastly to Warm Bear Hat. Peter rolled his eyes. If there was someone who was as crazy in collecting head accessories than Peter in their clan, it was Bluebell. Moreover, they got the advantage of owning a female character. Some head accessories like hairpins could not be worn by male character.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Show off.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: :p**

 

Sulking, Peter donned his Wings of Destiny Circlet. It was a special head accessories that could only be worn by a Hero. He was very mature like that.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: show off >_<**

 

Dork, Peter thought amusedly. What kind of people in the name of Shilen who still put emoji in their chats like that?

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Dork.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: ur gay**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: What’s wrong with my gay?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: its makig a mess in my ace only room**

 

Peter giggled.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Well, I will make sure to pick it up by 5.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: As for now, it’s your responsibility.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: i dun want ur gay >:(**

 

More emoji. Peter really couldn’t imagine just how dorky the person behind Bluebell’s character. He checked the clock and cursed. It was time to go to Mrs. Wang.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Too late, it’s yours now.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Whoops I need to go to work.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: PIDEY!!!!!!!!!**

 

\--

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: i tought ur hs student**

**[whisper]Bluebell: why r u work?**

 

Why was he working? Well… he needed extra pennies—not that Bluebell needed to know that.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I like it, I guess. The owner’s nice.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: It’s not like I got anything to do.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: What about you? What are you doing this summer?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Are you high school student too?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: im preparig for an**

 

AN as in AnimeNEXT? Wasn’t that an event held by next week?

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I don’t know you’re american.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: No, retract that. I don’t know you live close to me???**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: New Jersey SERIOUSLY???**

**[whisper]Bluebell: its nyc actualy**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I’m New Yorker too WTF!!**

**[whisper]Bluebell: well this is awkward**

 

Okay. _What?!_ So apparently Bluebell lived in NYC too? Well, that was quite… a plot twist. Usually, his internet friends lived hundred miles away from him and/or were separated by ocean between them, so this was quite unexpected. What if they went to the same school with _him?!_ That… wouldn’t be possible, right?

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Also AnimeNEXT????**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Oh God please don’t tell me you’re a weaboo. I draw the line at weaboo.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: If I see you on the street and you’re wearing harajuku I will pretend I don’t know you.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: shutup i like cospalying anime**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Oh God it’s worse.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I’m kicking you off the clan if you’re cosplaying Naruto.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: naruto sucks >:(**

**[whisper]Bluebell: onepiece 4 lyf**

**[whisper]Bluebell: gogle donquixote doflamingo**

 

Peter clicked his Chrome browser open and googled ‘donquixote doflamingo’ as per requested. A character wearing weird looking shades, obnoxiously oversized pink fluffy coat, and clashing orange tight trousers appeared on his screen. Somehow the character gave a strong queery vibe what with the bare chest and tongue sticking out of his lips.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I have to admit he’s pretty dashing.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: hes a bamf**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: You and I have different BAMF standard, buddy.**

 

\--

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for late update. my graduation ceremony was in saturday and i couldn't bring myself to write anything.
> 
> anyway, many thanks to my [bae](http://u-got-my-dick-message.tumblr.com) who corrected some of my grammar errors and for staying up late to hear me rant over skype and my [muse](http://madnessmelody.tumblr.com) for letting me talk about weird headcanons. also thanks for all those who left kudos and comments. u guys rocks ;;w;;b

The weather was nice for early June that afternoon. The sky was blue and no cloud hanging gloomily over their head. The graveyard was silent, but that was hardly unexpected, only occasional rustling of the trees when the wind blew softly. There were only him, his mom, and his aunt walking the gravel path. Peter found the silence calming.

 

They stopped in front of a double headstone, marked with ‘Richard and Ben Parker - Brothers, Father, Husbands, Uncle’ along with their date of birth and date of death. Peter’s mom gave a silent whimper as she bent down to place a bucket of daisies in front of the headstone. Aunt May followed by placing carnations then hugged his mom. Peter soon joined hugging both of them, feeling oddly… indifferent.

 

But that was nothing weird, he liked to think. Peter never understood why he didn’t have a dad and why they’d been living with Aunt May since he could ever remember, but he never questioned it. A pair of twin in his preschool, Amy and Winnie, had their dad and Uncle Kenny living with them instead of a mom and a dad. It wasn’t until he was six and went home crying after a bully at school told him he had no dad. His mom had tearfully told him about his dad and uncle, then. 

 

Peter was only three when his dad and his uncle went out for a baseball game, twelve years ago. They left the game happy because the Yankees beat Red Sox and took a cab home, but a drunk driver rammed a truck straight into their cab. Richard and Ben Parker died on the scene. The cab driver, who became a fast friend of the Parkers, only barely escaped death with a leg amputated. The truck driver got a twenty years of jail time and a rehab.

 

After telling the story, she gave him an unopened gift the police found from Richard’s belongings. A Yankee flag had its own place of honor in Peter’s bookshelf ever since, even though Peter had no interest in sports.

 

Per tradition, after visiting the graves, they had dinner at the Wang’s. Mrs. Wang cleared the diner for the Parkers to use privately. After a few words of condolences, she served fettuccini with marinara sauce, some meatballs and chicken wings, and garlic breads. Peter’s mom brought out fine scotch that used to be Peter’s dad’s (Peter himself got a sparkling grape juice). Aside from Thanksgiving and New Year dinner, it was the only time they ate something that wasn’t Aunt May’s meatloaves and variety of sandwiches.

 

As usual, his mom was retelling a story over dinner. This year, it was about Peter’s second birthday, when his dad and his uncle took a day off from their respective works so they could all go to the aquarium at Coney Island. He smiled bitterly as his aunt told him about how his dad introduced each species’ names to him and his uncle took pictures of them. They even got him old photo albums, picturing mostly of Peter and his family on that day. His dad and his mom were standing in front of a tank filled with dolphins. His dad was carrying him and they were smiling lovingly at him. One photo was picturing Peter and his uncle pointing at something in a large fish tank. Peter didn’t remember what they were pointing at.

 

In fact, Peter didn’t remember anything about his dad or his uncle, except from those stories his mom and his aunt were adamant in telling him.

 

Aside from a few awkward silence from Peter and occasional whimper from his mom and Aunt May, dinner was great. Peter stuffed himself full and Aunt May seemed only slightly tipsy from the scotch. They moved from the story of Peter’s childhood to times when his dad and mom were young. Peter even laughed at some stories about Uncle Ben trying to win Aunt May’s heart. Even though he’d heard it over and over, the story was still amusing to him.

 

As usual, Peter offered to pay—not the full bill, but maybe like a half or a quarter of it. As usual, his mom and his aunt refused and told him he’d put the money for better use. As usual, Peter relented. They walked home after that. Peter’s mom and Aunt May was still giggling over stories that Peter weren’t allowed to hear. Sulking, he opted to walk a few steps behind them and look for possible attack, but the neighborhood was empty as it usually was.

 

Peter kicked off pebbles, his mind spinning with questions. His mom knew he was gay and he bet his aunt knew too, but the subject was never voluntarily brought up and Peter couldn’t help the cold dread in his stomach if they secretly hoped the gay would go away by never talking about it. He couldn’t help but wonder silently. What would his dad and Uncle Ben said about him being a gay?

 

Soon, his mom noticed how subdued he was.

 

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” his mom asked. Peter stopped kicking the poor, unsuspecting pebble before looking up to meet his mom’s eyes.

 

“I was thinking—” he paused, hesitating. 

 

His mom and his aunt turned their attention to him fully. Peter cleared his throat awkwardly.

 

“Um, I was thinking… _whatwoulddadthinkofmebeinggay._ ”

 

At that, his mom and aunt turned to see each other, confusion clear on their face. Peter ducked his head, embarrassed. He went back to kicking pebbles. 

 

“I don’t think Richard would have minded”, his mom started slowly. Her hand reached for his shoulder. Peter looked up and saw her smiling.

 

“You think so?” he asked hesitantly.

 

His mom nodded. “I knew the man I loved and I knew he wasn’t prejudiced”, she said.

 

“And you think he wouldn’t be… homophobic?” Peter asked again, just to be sure.

 

“I don’t think so, no. He was very open-minded man. Even if he was at first, it would be because he was raised out of ignorance”, his mom answered. “Had you come out to him, I believe he would’ve looked up on the subject and supported you, no matter what. You were, after all, his sweet baby boy. He wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

 

Peter felt like heavy weight was lifted off his shoulders. Rationally, he knew his dad was dead and his opinion didn’t matter anyway, so seeking for his acceptance was pointless. Still, it felt good to know that his dad wouldn’t hate him for who he was. Peter smiled back at his mom and hugged her, trying to blink back the tears to no avail.

 

\--

 

Peter realized he didn’t have a lot of his dad’s belongings. His mom, recently widowed and still grieving of her husband’s sudden departure, was unable to look at the place they bought together and lived in. In a week or so, she sold the house, along with the furniture. She only took some books and trinkets that used to belong to Richard, important documents, Peter’s toys, and basic necessities that they would need to continue their life. They lived in Aunt May’s house ever since and raised Peter together.

 

Peter was flipping through his dad’s books. His dad used to be a biochemist at Oscorp, yet while working in the same building, that was not how he met his mom. His mom liked to tell Peter how shy Richard was. They took the same train to work, and that was where they met. His mom was running late and asked his dad to hold the train door open for her. It was pretty cliché, Peter thought.

 

He used to want to follow his dad’s career path. However, as the years grew on, he realized he had close to zero patience for biology. He was better suited with physics and he liked to fiddle with electrical appliances. Maybe electrical engineering major would be better for him. It didn’t matter; he still had at least three years of his high school left to decide about college, anyway.

 

From his dad’s old suitcase, he found a pair of glasses. It looked old, but the lenses were still in good condition. Peter put it on and found out that he had the same measurement with his dad’s. Peter put them back in their case, then kept it in his drawer. It would be good to have a spare. His mom always lamented how expensive they were each time Peter broke them (not his fault that Flash Thompson stepped on them).

 

He gathered the books and arranged them neatly at his bookshelves. He couldn’t bring himself to throw them out, seeing that they had his dad’s handwriting all over their pages, so keeping them as memento would be okay-ish. Small trinkets like his dad’s collection of fountain pens and tie pins were secured in two separate boxes in his drawer. He only took one fountain pen with tiny tropical flowers pattern decorating it, and placed it on the pencil case next to the empty chai tea can on his desk.

 

It was only a few weeks of him not seeing Harry Osborn, since the school term ended and the summer break started. He only saw him on occasional news about Oscorp’s charity gala, where Harry would be captured in fine suit and looking totally bored. Peter didn’t know if he was still crushing over Harry Osborn. In fact, he didn’t know how he felt about the Osborn heir in general. Neutral, maybe?

 

He closed his eyes and imagined himself kissing Harry’s full lips, but he shortly winced and opened his eyes. It felt… weird? He didn’t feel anything for Harry Osborn, not anymore. He wondered how did that happened.

 

Shrugging, Peter turned on his PC instead and logged in to his Lineage account. He didn’t know it would be good for him or not, for not crushing over Harry Osborn anymore, and he definitely was not going to touch that subject with a ten foot pole.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: u didnt online yestrday**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Sorry, my dad’s death anniversary yesterday.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: umm im srry?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: It’s ok.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: cna i have ur phone nmbers?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: What’s for?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: so we can talk evn if ur not on**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Yeah right, for all I know you could be a creep in his thirties.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: bc creeps keep lez girls in their house**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Ugh fine. If you’re sexting me, I’m telling my mom.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: ace sexts abuot dragons if u dont rmmember**

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... i have no excuse for this extremely late update except that i lost my peter's muse.
> 
> thanks to my [muffin](http://thehuman-rocket.tumblr.com) for being a dorklord and kickstarting my peter's muse, and for everyone who left comments and kudos (and that anon who messaged me on my tumblr). i'm just a small potato, i don't deserve all this love aaaaaaaaahhhhh ///////////
> 
> and yes Narutakki. i watched USM. first two seasons. i have a tag called 'crying about osborns' in my tumblr now, no thanks to you.

It was a particularly lazy evening. Peter got a half day off from the Wang’s diner because Mrs. Wang wanted to spend a night with her sons. He got paid for the off-hours and some buttered crabs from Mrs. Wang, so it wasn’t like he was not going to complain. Aunt May was so delighted for the crabs and kept half of them in the fridge for tomorrow’s breakfast. Peter was glad he wouldn’t have Aunt May’s legendary meatloaf for the… well, the nth time, actually.

 

He was snacking on some chips while one-handedly beating Antharas in the game. That was one perk of being a Summoner; if he had one single target to attack, he could leave his servitors to auto-attack the target while occasionally throwing spells and debuffs. Besides, the mini-Antharas wasn’t too hard for a boss, because all you had to do was to attack until Antharas’ health bar was close to empty. It was pretty boring, actually, since it usually took two to three hours for the mini raid to end.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: bae is putting winter soldier on**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Really? Where did you get it? I thought the DVD is not until September?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: well theres this website called torrent**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Touche.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Have you watched it before?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: no im not**

 

As the raid continued on, Peter’s private chat was filled with Bluebell livechatting the movie, making occasional remark on how Steve Rogers was keeping notes on popular culture, on Nick Fury’s death. Peter wisely refrained from making spoilers and laughed cruelly as they made angry comments about HYDRA.

 

\--

 

The first time Peter got a text from Bluebell on his phone, Peter was at the Wang’s, struggling with a stain on the floor that seemed to refuse to go away no matter how hard he scrubbed it. When he was finally got to check his phone, it was a photo message of blurry black blob with glowing green eyes and something that could be possibly an extremely expensive carpet. Peter squinted for full three minutes, until he fired a reply.

 

**_What is this._ **

**_—sent 14:14_ **

 

He got the reply immediately.

 

**_new kitten!!!!!!!_ **

**_—received 14:14_ **

 

Peter scrolled up and squinted at the photo again. It didn’t look like a cat. In fact, it looked more like creatures you would find in Creepypasta or Sixpenceee blog that would haunt you for life or kill you in horrible manner if you didn’t reblog the post or something.

 

**_It doesn’t look like kitten. Did you pick it up in Hell Vet?_ **

**_—sent 14:16_ **

 

**_she dun wan 2 stay 4 photo D:_ **

**_—received 14:16_ **

 

Peter rolled his eyes. Well, that was kittens for you. Though to be honest, puppies were sort of like that too. Peter gave up trying to take a photo of his neighbors’ dogs a long time ago.

 

**_How many cats do you have now?_ **

**_—sent 14:17_ **

 

**_idk. 12?_ **

**_—received 14:18_ **

 

Holy— Okay. So crazy cat persons who owned more than tencats _did_ exist. He didn’t know how people could stand too many animals in their house. One was okay, two maybe would be okay. But five? _Twelve?!_ How could one stand the smell, for a start?

 

**_How come you don’t know how many cats you owned??_ **

**_—sent 14:18_ **

 

**_… i sort of took them from parks and i didnt know i have 12 cats already i swear_ **

**_—received 14:18_ **

 

**_You asexuals are compensating for the lack of sex in your life by taking in as many cats as possible I swear._ **

**_—sent 14:20_ **

 

There was no reply for a long time that Peter stopped bothering to check his phone every ten seconds after thirty minutes passed. Then, just before he was about to walk home for the night, leftover mapo tofu in a plastic container on his hands, his phone vibrated.

 

**_guilty as charged_ **

**_—sent 19:03_ **

 

\--

 

Since that initial textspam, Bluebell and Peter had been textspamming about the most ridiculous things; which sometimes often happened during Peter’s shift at the Wang’s. Of course, the girls at the Wang’s noticed that Peter started checking his phone often and began teasing him that the lil’ Pete finally got himself a boyfriend. He stuck his tongue childishly at them, which caused more rounds of giggling and teasing. Peter was grateful when Mrs. Wang told them to spare the poor boy, but when they were alone, she bluntly told him to always remember wearing condoms.

 

No thanks to Mrs. Wang’s gossipy mouth, soon his Aunt May and his mom knew about this imaginary boyfriend of his. It became a sort of game of ‘Who Is Peter’s Boyfriend’ in the house. His mom even mentioned Edward, who owned a Rottweiler that Peter often walked around the block, or Julius, who came out as queer at last year Thanksgiving and somehow became famous in their neighborhood. But when his Aunt May began to list his schoolmates, starting from the one and only Harry Osborn, Peter quickly put an end to it.

 

Oddly, talking about Harry Osborn didn’t hurt him like it did before. He had accepted ages ago that Harry was straight and he respected that, because just like his own sexuality, Harry couldn’t help it. It was a situation neither of them could control. Besides, Peter thought his crush had shifted to another person.

 

\--

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Hey, I haven’t seen Bluebell all day.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: hey leader, yeah i’m fine, thanks for asking.**

 

Oops. Someone was prissy today.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Uh, are you okay?**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: ugh. no. cthulhu week. tired too.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: found bae dead drunk when i went back from grocery shopping.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: idk where he got the beer. i swear i threw em all away three days ago.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Ouch.**

 

Peter remembered the first time he witnessed Bluebell drunk-chatting ages ago, then remembered the nagging question that always lingered each time he was presented with their drinking problem.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Umm sorry if I’m nosey.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Is Bluebell even legal to drink?**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: technically no, but that never stopped him.**

 

Oh. Wow. Actual teenage with drinking problem. Adding that to an asexual with gender identity crisis who lived between unsupporting family member was a recipe for disaster. Peter couldn’t help but feeling sorry for Titan who had to deal with Bluebell’s messes.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Uh, you’re friends with Bluebell, right?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Isn’t it hard to deal with them? Like… they got drinking problem and you got to take care of them…**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: your point is?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Well, what makes you stay? If she’s just ‘friend’, you can just… y’know… walk away.**

 

A minute passed until Titan’s reply showed up.

 

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: i know what you’re thinking. you think a guy and a girl can’t be friends without anything going between them, am i right?**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: well, you’re wrong, mister.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: i’m telling you this because i’ve known you since ages. plus, i know you won’t blabber to everyone. i trust you.**

 

It wasn’t what he thought, when he first knew about the fact that Titan was a girl and Bluebell was a… well, technically someone who society saw as a guy. Since he found out that Bluebell was an asexual, he had read quite plenty topics about asexuality and he knew that some asexuals could live platonically with someone they considered close friend or romantic partner. 

 

It wasn’t like he wanted to be nosey with Titan and Bluebell’s IRL life and it definitely wasn’t how he thought he would find out about their stories. He sensed a long good talk at this, so Peter waited until Titan was finished talking.

 

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: sure, my bae got his problems. he’s a wreck and sometimes i ask myself why i’m staying with this poor excuse of a human being.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: but my bae and i have been friends since we were sprouts.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: we grew up together and we knew each other better than anyone.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: he was the first one to know i’m gay and i was the first one to know he’s ace.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: his dad’s a bigot, my dad’s a bigot too. so are my mom and my brothers.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: so we promised we will protect each other because we got no one else to protect us.**

 

Peter was… stunned. Titan’s confession was very honest and very heartbreaking. Not for the first time ever, Peter was grateful that he got a family who was supportive of him being a gay. Sure, his mom could be very annoying at times, asking questions on who he was dating and the likes, and his aunt could be pretty clueless when it came to gay relationship. Yet, at least, they never told him to be ‘normal’ or something.

 

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: do i know he got problems? yes i do.**

**[whisper]TitaniumTitan: but y know, when you care about someone, all you want to do is wrap them in a blanket and wish it’ll be enough to keep them safe.**

 

Peter thought he knew how it felt.

 

The more he chatted and texted with Bluebell and knew them better, the more he grew fond of the other person. It wasn’t as weird as he used to think it would be. He really enjoyed talking to Bluebell and there was always this weird, fluttery feeling when he felt his phone vibrating from each new incoming messages. Sometimes Peter would rant after another round of ‘Who Is Peter’s Boyfriend’ and Bluebell would make him laugh by commenting how weird allo people were. There were times when Bluebell drunktexted him and Peter would tell them to go sleep; and oddly there would be no other message until morning when they would rant on text in that cutish way that made Peter wanted to squish them.

 

Peter knew there were a thousand reasons why this could go _terribly_ wrong. Bluebell was someone with drinking problem. From that alone, there would be another hundred reasons why he should stay away from them. However, whenever Peter got a new incoming text from Bluebell or a private in-game chat from them, all those reasons were gone, replaced by a feeling like he wanted to wrap them in a blanket and kept them there so that nothing would hurt them.

 

Yes, Peter knew how it felt.

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update! but as i said on my tumblr, i was at the capital to attend funeral slash family gathering thing last week. my aunt's house doesn't have internet connection so all i got was my phone 4g, which was too weak to access gdrive >_>
> 
> the talk about whale peen is based on conversation between me and my muffin.
> 
> also not sorry for the Pacific Rim discussion.

Without him realizing it, the school term started again and with it, his life as resident human punchbag too. Peter was reminded of how hard his life in high school by a shove to the shoulder as he picked his books from the locker. As he heard Flash and his fellow football goons laughing, Peter thought he was pretty lucky not getting shoved and locked inside his locker like he used to be. He righted his glasses with a sigh and began walking to his class, trying to make himself as small as possible.

 

During classes, he couldn’t help checking his phone every now and then. English literature was boring and he was about to keel over and die on his desk, until his phone vibrated. He read it under his desk, trying so hard not to smile a hundred watt bright as he read the sender’s name, which of course showed ‘Bluebell’.

 

**_school is booooooOOooOOooOoooring_ **

**_—received 10:13_ **

 

Peter tried not to raise his eyebrows. So Bluebell was a high school student too? He remembered giving away that he was a high school student, but he couldn’t remember if Bluebell had ever told him if they were a student or not.

 

**_What subject do you have now?_ **

**_—sent 10:13_ **

 

**_math :(_ **

**_—received 10:13_ **

 

**_Sucks to be you_ **

**_—sent 10:14_ **

 

Peter hid his phone in his sleeve and pretended to read his book when Mrs. Chance was turning to his direction.

 

\--

 

Peter kept texting Bluebell at classes and during lunch break while trying to hide his phone from the teachers and Flash’ goons. Much to his surprise, his first day at school passed without him realizing it. Then, he remembered about walking back home.

 

To get out of his school, he needed to walk the school ground where the school’s most popular kids liked to hang on. For Peter (and other school nerds and underdogs, actually) this meant an actual Battle Royale where only the strongest could survive. Literally _anyone_ could and would try to humiliate them in front of the whole school. It happened too many times and Peter wasn’t that eager for _another_ repeat performance, especially not at the first day of school.

 

For not the first time ever, Peter wished he could just disappear. There was an Iss Enchanter skill that would hide party members from enemies’ sight. If only skill like that was real, Peter would just trade anything for it. Since it wasn’t, Peter hunched his back and started walking in quick pace. He only hoped it would make him appear smaller.

 

Born with shit luck he was, of course everything couldn’t just happen the way he wanted it. He was only halfway through the ground when he heard someone shouting “Ice bucket challenge!!”. Apparently, it was the only warning he got, because the next second he was doused with a bucketful of water— _freezing_ ice water.

 

He was too stunned to move. _Fuck_ , the water was _freezing_ , obviously. He tried to stop his teeth from chattering. His bird nest hair was plastered to his head and he could feel tiny ice cubes were sliding _in_ his jacket and down his back. Distantly, he could hear the girls tittering and Flash Thompson hollering.

 

Peter made a mistake by looking up. Everyone were looking at him; some of them were laughing and pointing at him like he was some kind of _freak_. Not only that, right there sitting on a bench, Harry Osborn was looking at him too. There was an awkward half-smile on his face. Oh just—There was nothing else that Peter wanted other than to curl up right there and die.

 

“Oh my God! Flash! Is that really _necessary?!_ ” Gwen Stacy strode from the crowds. Peter could see that she was furious.

 

 “Ice bucket challenge, Gwen. Don’t you know? It’s a trend now”, Flash grinned.

 

“I know what it is and I know it’s _supposed_ to raise awareness on people about Lou Gehrig’s Disease and it’s definitely _not_ about _bullying!_ ” Gwen’s sentence ended with a shout.

 

“Oh come on, Gwen. It’s just a joke!” Suddenly, Flash slung an arm around Peter’s shoulder and shook him. Peter felt like a twig in a King Kong’s arm. “Right, buddy? Tell her it’s just a joke!”

 

Peter looked at his feet, the water was getting into his cheap Wal-Mart sneakers and his socks were soppy. Thankfully, he was saved from having to reply when he heard someone shouting Flash’ name from the bench.

 

It was Harry Osborn and he was striding to them,

 

“Wow! That’s great, Flash! So it was just a joke! I don’t know it was a joke, because it was so very—”, Harry paused and his smile turned into a sneer. “—very, very _disgustingly_ not funny and I might never know if you don’t tell me.”

 

Harry was a head shorter than Flash Thompson and just half as wide. If Flash wanted it, he could just pound Harry into a bloody smear on the pavement. But the way Harry was staring at Flash made Peter couldn’t help but believe that Harry could destroy Flash with one finger. With all his money, it would probably be true to some degree.

 

The tension between those two men broke when Flash scurried off with his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs. Peter sighed.

 

His sigh apparently broke Gwen from her trance, because then he had her hands all over his head.

 

“Oh my God, look at you. Are you okay? Do you want me and Harry to take you home?” she babbled as she was patting Peter’s jacket. More ice cubes fell from his jacket.

 

“Uh, it’s fine. I can—I can take a train home”, Peter stuttered.

 

“Don’t be silly! We’re taking you home”, Gwen grabbed his hand, steering him to the parking lot. Harry was walking by Peter’s left, toying with his car key and whistling.

 

Oh God please kill him right now before he embarrassed himself later.

 

“No! Gwen, I’m… augh! I’ll drip everywhere in the car and I’m very extremely positive I won’t be able to pay the—Oh. My. God. Is that Audi R8? It’s Tony Stark’s car in, in—” Peter trailed off. See what me meant by embarrassing himself?

 

However, Harry only smiled at him amusedly. It felt like a brick just hit Peter’s face as he was reminded all over again why he used to have a crush so hard over this guy.

 

Gwen shoved a bundle of fluffy white towel, a pair of jeans, and a jacket at him—Peter’s brain short-circuited because it was _Harry’s_ jacket. It was ridiculously expensive looking and _Holy Einhasad_ it _smelled_ of Harry’s cologne and it was nice smell too. Peter smothered his face on the towel before he’d ever think to hug the jacket, all while chastising himself mentally that Harry Osborn was straight and this stupid crush needed to stop. ASAP.

 

Harry accompanied Peter to change in the school’s toilet. Harry was glaring daggers at whoever tried to giggle at Peter’s direction. Somehow, Peter felt ridiculously safe with the blond boy around. It wasn’t until he finished changing his clothes when Peter realized that it was one of the rare moments someone stood up for him.

 

They walked back to Harry’s car. Harry’s jacket was a snug fit on Peter, but his jeans’ pipes hung two inches above Peter’s ankles. Harry took the driver seat and Gwen at his side. Peter quietly climbed the back seat (and he now noticed the difference of the car, because Tony Stark’s car in first Iron Man movie was a two-seater and not four-seater). Then, he spotted a tiny Gypsy Danger figure dangling from the rearview mirror.

 

“Er, ignore that. It’s her idea of joke gift”, Harry noticed Peter’s gaze and muttered as he was fiddling with the ignition key.

 

“Oh, shut up. You like it”, Gwen pouted.

 

“Yeah, but Cherno Alpha is cooler”, Harry retorted.

 

“I second that”, Peter blurted out, before realizing it. Both of them turned their head to him and Peter couldn’t help but shrink back into the back seat. Harry turned back to Gwen and smirked winningly.

 

“See? I told you Cherno Alpha is better!”

 

“But Mako Mori is _cuter!_ And please don’t tell me you choose Sasha Kaidonovsky’s boob plate over Mako Mori’s cuteness”, Gwen pouted.

 

“Er.” To be honest, Peter preferred Alexis Kaidonovsky more, but come on… who didn’t? Peter coughed nervously, trying to avert his mind from the hunky Russian’s muscles. Obviously, he couldn’t say that out loud.

 

As the car started moving, Harry launched ahead-full into why Cherno Alpha was better. “And I quote, ‘Cherno Alpha is one of the heaviest and best armored Jaegers’. You see how Knifehead _rip_ straight to Danger’s hull! I bet Cherno can take that and more!” the blond boy ended his argument.

 

“Well, yeah, but Leatherback ripped Cherno to pieces”, Gwen shot back.

 

“Leatherback got help from Otachi”, Peter piped in, feeling a bit less awkward now that they were talking about the subject that was familiar to him.

 

“And Cherno got help from Eureka and Typhoon. Danger was alone when they faced Knifehead”, the blond girl huffed and crossed her arms.

 

They argued back and forth the whole car ride to Peter’s house. Overall, it was such a surreal experience for him; he, the school nerd, was having an in-depth discussion with two of the school’s most popular kids about a geek movie? Definitely surreal, he thought as he bounded up the stairs to his room. He couldn’t wait to tell Bluebell about this.

 

\--

 

After showered and grabbed some meatloaves from the table as dinner (his mom was yelling to him to stop wandering around only in towel around his waist as he ran up the stairs), Peter logged in to the Lineage II. As soon as he was connected to his character, Bluebell greeted him through private chat.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: baeee**

 

Peter smiled at that and typed up the reply.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Hello to you too, Boo.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: boo?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Well, it’s autumn. I’m calling you Boo to get into Halloween-y feel.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: u dork**

 

Peter threw his towel to his bed and grabbed a pair of boxers from his wardrobe, trying to wear it with one hand as he tried to type the reply with the other hand.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Do you know that dork is a whale peenie?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: u shttin me**

**[whisper]Bluebell: btw hows school**

 

Peter pulled on a wife beater and mussed up his wet hair, sitting cross-legged on his chair as he tried to make himself comfortable.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Sucks to be high school nerd.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: u got bullied?**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Yeah. Someone stood up for me tho.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: thats good ^_ &**

**[whisper]Bluebell: *^_^**

**[whisper]Bluebell: i also saw som1 got bullied today**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Ew. High schools everywhere, I swear.**

 

He glanced at the clock at the right bottom corner of his monitor. 19:49 p.m.—meaning he still got a few hours to work on his homeworks.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Want to Octavis?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: sure ill call the others**

 

\--

 


	11. Chapter 11

The first odd thing that Peter noticed the next day was Flash Thompson passing him by at the locker room but not doing anything aside from growling menacingly at him. That was enough to send Peter scurrying with his books at his hands, though, so he didn’t put too much thought into it. He hurried to his first class and took the chair at the back of the class.

He tried to sleep in class. The Octavis raid turned into a full blown war against other clans so Peter had to stay up until two in the morning to finish his homeworks. He didn’t have the chance to read for his literature homework, but he didn’t care about that. As long as he put a confident face, the teacher wouldn’t quiz him. 

He managed to nod off for a few minutes before pretending to pay attention to the teacher. It was Art class and honestly, Peter just didn’t have the thing called aesthetics. He didn’t know and didn’t care why you shouldn’t mix this color with that color, or why that color combinations wouldn’t work good. He just couldn’t tell why something looked good while the other looked bad. Instead, he spent the class texting Bluebell, who got History class that morning. His art project was left unfinished.

During lunch, Peter managed to grab the food unscathed. It was mashed potatoes and salad that day and so far, no one had attempted to pour ketchup or mayonnaise onto his back. Before he walked off to find an empty seat, though, someone grabbed his hand and directed him to…

… to the popular kids’ table. That was when he realized that it was Harry Osborn who was pulling him there. Peter nearly dropped his tray but thankfully managed to regain composure pretty quickly.

“You’re sitting with us today”, Harry said cheerfully.

“Uh, eh, really you don’t have to—” Peter stammered, but Gwen nudged him and pointed at three tables away where Flash and his goons were cracking their knuckles menacingly at him. Huh…?

“Just curious, were you doing something to them because they kinda look like about to eat me alive right now”, Peter turned to Harry, raising his eyebrows.

“Eh, well, I gave them a _sound beating_ earlier and somehow they didn’t look too happy”, Harry shrugged, taking a seat next to Peter.

“And by ‘sound beating’ he means blackmail”, Gwen cast a disapproving look at Harry, who simply smiled as he was pouring lots and lots of ketchup over his mashed potatoes. Peter stared at Harry’s plate, half cringing and half wondering. Who put ketchup over their mashed potatoes?

“Oh…” Peter finally stopped staring at the monstrosity on Harry’s plate. Why would Harry go that far to defend him?

“I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m Mary Jane Watson. From theatre club.”, a girl sitting next to Gwen chirps in. Peter turned to her, smiling awkwardly. He recognized her; she got red hair that was impossible to forget and cute little dimples on her cheeks.

“We did. I, uh, took the photos of theatre club last year”, Peter pointed out. “And designed your comedy group logo too.”

Instantly, Mary Jane’s face brightened up. “Oh! So it was you! Thank you! The girls like your design so much”, she said excitedly then glanced exasperatedly at Harry. “Harry here didn’t remember your name so we didn’t know who did our gig’s logo.”

“I’m good with people forgetting my name. Easier to conquer and divide when you stay unrecognized”, Peter smirked, hoping that they would take his joke not too seriously. They stared at him like he’d grown another head. The silence on the table was broken by Harry snorting loudly at his joke.

“You’re funny. I like you”, Harry slapped Peter’s back roughly, laughing. For someone so small, Harry sure got some power in those wiry arms, Peter mused. Harry then turned to Gwen. “Can I keep him, Mom?”

_Mom?_

“Harry? Play nice”, Gwen rolled her eyes at Harry, but she was smiling fondly at the blond boy.

“Welcome to the club”, Mary Jane smiled at Peter as she was taking a spoonful of her Jell-O.

Peter grinned weakly at her. His life apparently had taken a weird turn.

\--

If lunch was surreal, then Peter had to reevaluate his opinion about Harry Osborn and his gang of popular kids. After school, Harry was waiting in front of Peter’s class, flung an arm around Peter’s shoulder once he walked out the class, and dragged him away without any warning except a brief “You come home with me today”. Peter wondered how in Shilen’s name he could be dragged and manhandled by a guy who was at least a head shorter than him, but let Harry anyway.

As they passed the lockers, Peter had to suppress a whimper when Flash and his football goons glared at both of them, though thankfully they did nothing.

“Where’s Gwen?” Peter asked as he stood next to Harry’s car, noticing the blond girl’s absence.

“Oh, she’s with MJ”, Harry replied easily, slipping into the driver’s seat. Peter was about to open the backseat door when Harry shot him odd look.

“What are you doing? Get in the front! I’m not your driver”, Harry chuckled. Peter retracted his hand from the handle as if burned.

“Sorry”, he flustered and sullenly moved to the front passenger seat’s door, quietly slipping into the passenger’s seat then fastening the seatbelt without a word. He knew Harry didn’t mean it, that he was only joking. But still… Peter couldn’t help the awkwardness. Just a few months ago, he was still crushing over Harry; and now that he was already over it, he didn’t know how to react around Harry.

Peter clutched at his bag and bumped his knees the whole car ride, whistling odd tune just to break the awkward silence. Harry was idly tapping his fingers to the wheel, and while Peter wasn’t the one to talk, the noise kind of peeved him. Eventually, Peter took out his phone and shot a quick text to Bluebell, just in case he couldn’t reply.

**_Brb. Going home with a friend._ **

**_—sent 14:29_ **

He waited for Bluebell’s reply, but he got none. Shrugging, he slipped his phone into his jacket’s pocket and the awkward silence continued.

Eventually, Harry broke the silence. “I need to do a bit milk run, if you don’t mind?” he asked.

“Sure”, Peter replied without missing a beat. Then, “What are you buying?”

“Some pumpkin spice flavoring. Gwen’s making pumpkin spiced cookies tonight”, Harry replied. Peter nodded while metaphorically trying to grind a shred of jealousy into the dirt with his heel.

They stopped at a convenient store. Harry said he wouldn’t be long, but Peter followed him along anyway (because he was curious, shut up). Just when they were about to enter the store, Peter’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and found a text from Bluebell.

**_safe trip ^o^_ **

**_(srry was driving)_ **

**_—received 14:48_ **

Peter smiled at his phone, then shot a quick reply.

**_Nah it’s ok. Safe trip for u too :D_ **

**_—sent 14:48_ **

He tucked his phone away then turned at Harry, who was pulling a cart from the entrance while looking at his own phone. The blond boy didn’t notice Peter walking in front of him, too distracted with his phone, and ended up bumping Peter’s side with the cart.

“Here, let me”, Peter volunteered to take the cart, mostly because he didn’t need bruises from this shopping trip. Harry grinned apologetically at Peter before giving away the cart to Peter’s hand, then shoving his phone in his pocket.

As he was pushing the cart, Peter couldn’t help feeling confused. Just how many of pumpkin spice flavoring Harry would need? His confusion was soon answered when Harry was putting a lot of pumpkin spiced things into the cart; from pumpkin spiced chewy candies, pumpkin spiced Jell-O, pumpkin spiced Poptarts, even pumpkin spiced instant latte.

“You like pumpkin spiced stuff”, Peter stated more than asked. He couldn’t help but think that it was so endearingly weird. He thought only girls liked everything pumpkin spiced, but he should’ve known that the internet meme about girls liking pumpkin spiced stuffs was so incredibly sexist, just like any other internet memes.

“They taste good”, Harry replied, though Peter could see the tips of his ears turning red.

“Ooookay… I’ve never tried it so I’ll trust your judgement about this”, Peter grinned, slouching on the shopping cart.

“ _You_ never tried pumpkin spiced food before??” Harry whipped his head to stare at Peter incredulously.

“Um. No?” He didn’t understand the hype, to be honest. He never tried it because it was sort of ingrained in his head that it was girls’ stuff that boys wouldn’t understand. He couldn’t help but feeling that he might or might not be a sexist dickwad without him even realizing it.

Peter’s mom always said that Peter could be pretty transparent most of the times. He gulped when Harry shot him odd look. Could Harry read his mind? 

\--

They ended up sitting in the car, two bags of pumpkin spiced stuffs safely stored in the backseat. Harry claimed that it was a blasphemy that Peter never tasted anything pumpkin spiced and treated him for a tall cup of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte. It tasted pretty good, Peter decided, though it was a bit too sweet for his taste buds. Harry himself got some Pumpkin Breads to go with his own Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino in grande cup. Apparently you could request a frappuccino in Pumpkin Spice flavor.

“Can I try that?” Peter pointed at the Pumpkin Breads on paper plate balanced over Harry’s knee.

“Sure”, Harry handed the paper plate.

Peter nibbled the Pumpkin Bread. It tasted very sweet too. Suddenly Peter got an epiphany; Harry Osborn had a sweet tooth. As he was nibbling his own bread, he glanced at Harry, who was finishing his cup of frappuccino.

“Where did it all go?” Peter asked just because.

“What?” Harry turned at him, seemingly surprised with the sudden question.

“All those frappuccino”, Peter waved his hand that was still holding his latte at Harry’s general direction. “Where did it all go?”

Harry furrowed his brows but he was grinning as if only realizing what Peter was trying to say. He patted his stomach that was covered with green sweater. “This connected to a black hole”, he replied. “All those sweets are going to another plane of reality.”

Peter couldn’t help but laughing the mental image of Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino and Pumpkin Breads floating aimlessly in vacuum. “Intelligent creatures from that plane of reality will have a hard time figuring those out”, he said.

“Because they don’t have pumpkin spiced stuff, obviously”, Harry said in serious tone, but the effect was ruined by the annoyingly loud sucking noise he was making as he tried to get the last of the whipped cream in the cup. Peter tried so hard not to laugh and instead put on his own serious face.

“Obviously. Imagine a plane of reality without pumpkin spiced stuff”, he added.

Harry visibly shuddered. “The horror”, he said in sad voice, though Peter could see his eyes glinting with humor.

Once they were done with the drinks and snacks, they decided to take home their trash since neither of them wanted to get off the car to find a trash bin and both of them agreed that carelessly throwing their trash on the parking lot was ‘uncool’ (Harry’s word, that dork). The traffic jam wasn’t too bad, so in ten minutes, they arrived in front of Peter’s home sweet home. 

“Thanks for today, really”, Peter told Harry as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

“Nah, don’t mind it”, Harry waved his hand carelessly, then as if remembering something, he took out his phone from his pocket. “Anyway, we should hang out again sometimes. Can I have your number?”

“That is like the most common and the most unromantic way to ask someone’s out”, Peter teased the blond boy, but told his number anyway.

“No homo, bro”, Harry joked, laughing in that weird way; like half chortling-half snorting. Peter stuck his tongue out at his upperclassman, then laughed too.

“Anyway, I’m like, really really bad at remembering people’s numbers, including mine. So I’m gonna call you, okay?” Harry sobered up and Peter saw him pressing the dial button. Peter took out his own phone from his jacket and waited for Harry’s number to appear on his screen.

Instead, it was Bluebell’s name appearing there. Peter’s grin fell as he stared at the name on his screen.

“Did you get it?” he heard Harry asking. Peter looked up to stare at the blond boy, confused. Why was Bluebell’s name appearing on his dial screen instead of Harry’s unrecognized number? Unless…

Unless… Harry was Bluebell.

Harry Osborn, his stupid old crush since his sixth grade, was his online friend—and not only friend; Bluebell was like his internet crush in totally platonic way. Bluebell, the terrific healer, the witty agender asexual person was Harry Osborn, the popular kid at school with a dad so rich he could probably buy a small island for Harry’s birthday.

Somehow Peter was having a hard time to combine the two.

“What…?” Harry asked, his face serious as if only noticing Peter’s expression.

Peter tried to remember the most memorable innocuous chat they used to do, just because he couldn’t break it in to Harry that ‘I am SpiderSummonerr’. If Harry was not Bluebell, however slim chance that was, Peter didn’t want to make an embarrassment of himself.

Yet, here was the stupid thing; sometimes when Peter was feeling anxious and/or embarrassed, he would blurt out the first thing crossed his mind.

Thus, that was why he asked, “Do you think asexuals sext with ‘tell me about dragons’?”

Realizing a second too late what he just said to his new friend, Peter bent over on his seat in that instant, covering his face with his jacket sleeves and hoping for a sinkhole to open up and swallow him. He kind of expected Harry to answer indignantly or reply with ignorance. After all it was kind of gross and bigoted people could take that sentence in completely different meaning.

He did not expect Harry gasping in surprise.

“You’re Pidey!!” Harry blurted out.

Peter straightened up only to see Harry’s confused face. He blinked. Harry’s smile widened.

“I only shared that joke with Gwen!” Harry half-shouted excitedly. Peter blinked again. Wait a minute… Bluebell lived with TitaniumTitan, who was their childhood, friend and an army of cats. Harry was… well, loved cats… and the only girl who seemed close enough to him was… 

“Oh my God, Gwen Stacy is a lesbian!” This time, Peter blurted out, then he slapped his own mouth realizing what he just said.

“Yes. She’s dating Mary Jane”, Harry rolled his eyes.

“Oh my God…” Peter groaned. This was too much. His stupid old crush whom he thought was heterosexual and dating the most popular girl at school turned out to be asexual, while the most popular girl at _his_ school turned out to be lesbian and dating the president of _his_ school drama club.

Heteronormativity was a fucked up thing.

Silence fell over them, only Harry’s car engine on idle as their background noise. Peter was having flashbacks on weird moment he was chatting with Bluebell and their adventure in Lineage II together. They had been friends in the game since a couple years ago, not realizing that they were school friends. He had no doubt that Harry was thinking just the same.

“So”, Harry started awkwardly, clearing his throat. “This straight crush of yours. He’s in our school?”

Oh God, not that particular chat. Anything but that. Peter bent over again.

“That’s the funny thing… I-I just found out that they’re not as straight as I thought they are… like five minutes ago”, he muttered into his knee, hoping that Harry couldn’t hear his words.

More silence. 

“Oh”, Peter could hear Harry hummed.

“Yeah”, Peter said.

“Yeah”, Harry echoed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THERE. I DID IT.
> 
> actually i wanted to post this at monday but i went 'nah YOLO' and posted it anyway.
> 
> the reason i couldn't update was that my telephone pole got struck by thunder, that even after i called the company to fix it, i still have trouble connecting. i keep all my fics on google drive in google doc format, so it often crashes in unstable connection.
> 
> if you're interested, please follow [my tumblr](http://sadbabyosborn.tumblr.com) for info about update. i often answered anon asks there about this fic.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeeep sorry that this one chapter is so super late. but i lost the file to my plot draft so i have to rewrite everything.
> 
> the ~~bad~~ good thing from this is that i completely removed the angst.

That night, Peter did everything on autopilot.

 

His head was still spinning with thoughts. Harry was Bluebell. Harry was Bluebell, that adorable internet friend with an army of cats, that badass healer who he’d known since like forever. And then Bluebell was Harry, Peter’s ~~fortunate~~ unfortunate crush. He thought that crush had died and replaced by a new crush, but then his new crush was Bluebell. Harry was Bluebell. Bluebell was Harry. Harry was Harry.

 

Oh Lords, this whole trainwreck of thoughts made his head hurt.

 

His mom and aunt noticed, of course. Who the hell he was kidding, they might not know his life in gritty details, but they sure noticed that there was something bothering him. Which his mom voiced her concerns out loud.

 

“Oh, nope. I’m fine. It’s just that…” Peter trailed off. He looked down at his fried tofu and rice. His crush to one and only Harry Osborn had to be stomped into the dirt because Harry had a girlfriend, or so the gossip said. But then again, if Harry was Bluebell and Gwen was TitaniumTitan and they lived together, then Gwen was _absolutely_ not Harry’s girlfriend. Even Harry said so, Gwen was dating Mary Jane Watson. That sorta cute-ish red haired theatre club president, his brain supplied. See:

 

_if_

_HO = BB_

_GS = TT_

 

_and_

_BB + TT ≠ not dating_

 

_then_

_HO + GS ≠ not dating_

 

Maybe because it was nearly ingrained in his brain by some kind of laser engraver, that said Harry Osborn Was Dating Gwen Stacy And Thusly Off The Market, that Peter had a hard time to wrap his brain around it. When he did, it felt like a whole world was lifted off his shoulders. Harry was not dating Gwen. Harry was single, single, single. Peter’s brain sang and he spooned up the rice more merrily. And that was when the realization train hit him.

 

He confessed to Harry.

 

He _confessed_ to Harry that he had a crush on him… them(?). _He freaking confessed to Harry that he had a crush on them and he thought they were straight and dating Gwen but Harry was not straight they were asexual and they definitely were not dating Gwen_. That definitely redefined Awkward. Peter wanted to curl up for seventy years.

 

“Peter…?” his aunt gasped.

 

Apparently he said the last part out loud. Whoops.

 

“I… need to lie down”, he blurted out, and with that, bolted from the dining table and dashed up to his room.

 

The bed felt like a fortress. He threw up his covers up to cover his face too for extra protection. DEF +250. It was dark and he was safe. He wriggled a bit to curl in foetal position and hugged his knees. There was a knock on his door.

 

“Peter, are you okay?” his mom asked. There were whispers outside his door. Probably his mom had teamed up with his aunt and they were going to tear down his defenses.

 

“Yes, Mom. I, uh… It’s just a little bit teenage problem”, Peter squeaked.

 

“Do you need to talk, Sweetie? We might be able to help”, his aunt said.

 

“No, no. It’s fine. It’ll go away on itself.” _If only_ , Peter’s brain sneered. Oh shut up brain.

 

“If you’re sure…” It was his mom this time.

 

He heard their footsteps shuffling away from the general vicinity of his room. Peter let out a breath. Crisis with the Moms averted.

 

Now what should he do with his other crisis.

 

\--

 

Peter wanted to skip off school.

 

He looked like shit. He felt like shit. The butterflies in his stomach made him want to backflip into the space and he didn’t think he was ready to face Harry at school without curling up in embarrassment because Oh God. All in all, he just wanted to lie down all day in the protection of his bed and skip off school.

 

“I’m sick. I can’t go to school”, he said out loud when his mom knocked his door.

 

“Peter… Do you have problems at school? Is someone bullying you?” his mom asked.

 

 _Yes!_ Peter wanted to scream. Yes, someone was bullying him at school, _had been_ bullying him at school. But that was not the problem now. It hadn’t been a problem since _years thanks to Harry Osborn doing the unmentionable to Peter’s previous bully_. His stomach was rolling again at the thought of Harry. He groaned before he remembered that his mom was still waiting just a few feet away from him, separated by door.

 

“N-no. I’m… just sick.”

 

“Peter Benjamin Parker”, his mom’s voice was gentle but firm. How could she do that, he didn’t know. Magic of Moms, he guessed. “You are not going to skip school. If you have ‘a little bit of teenage problem’, you’re going to face it like a man.”

 

 _That wasn’t fair_ , Peter wanted to protest. He didn’t know how to do things ‘like a man’. His dad and uncle were dead and they couldn’t teach him how to do things ‘like a man’. Not for the first time in his life, he wondered how his life would’ve been if his dad and/or uncle were alive. He didn’t say it out loud to his mom, though. He wasn’t _that much_ of an asshole.

 

Instead, he grumbled and rose up from his bed, bracing himself to face the battle.

 

\--

 

Peter was only taking his books out of his locker when he felt himself shoved and suddenly it was dark. A click indicated that the locker door was locked from the outside. _Great_ , he thought blithely as he arranged his awkwardly long limbs into better position. You would think that no one could fit inside a locker, but apparently, you could if you knew how to.

 

He hugged his bags and books. He’d been doing this since… since as far as he could remember. Maybe since he started school, that damned first grade… or maybe a bit further to the kindergarten. There were always a bully who would do this to him. He was long done and had stopped protesting. There was no use for screaming or kicking or begging to be released; it would only give sick satisfaction to his bullies. No… he wouldn’t do that. He would accept his fate and wait until the throng of students had dissipated from the locker room. Only then he could call a help from a passing janitor… if he were lucky.

 

He certainly didn’t expect the lock to open so soon, and he _certainly_ didn’t expect Harry’s head poking through the opening. Apparently, angels came in any forms. Peter blinked.

 

“Dude, you’re okay?” Harry sounded concerned.

 

“Yeah…” Peter squeaked, all long limbs still folded neatly to fit in the narrow space. He was still hugging his bags and books.

 

Harry offered a hand which Peter accepted gratefully. Once he was outside, he patted his oversized sweaters. Thankfully, he was wearing sweaters outside his shirt. He didn’t want to imagine the wrinkles on his shirt.

 

“You sure?” Harry asked again.

 

Peter nodded. “Yeah. Believe me, this ain’t my first rodeo.”

 

Harry shot him a look. It wasn’t pity, no, more like… incredulity? “If you say so. I saw Flash and the goons shoving you into your locker so I snapped a photo of them. Sooo”, Harry waved their phone, the shiny sleek black IPhone 6. “I got blackmail material I needed. They won’t bother you again, hopefully.”

 

Angel. Harry Osborn was Peter’s guardian angel, he was sure of that.

 

“Um. Thanks… You don’t have to”, Peter muttered and fixed his glasses. Outwardly, he might appeared calm. Inside, his stomach was doing its best impression of macarena dance. He should be bolting away from Harry and avoid him like plague, but he didn’t think he would be able to trust his legs taking him too far.

 

“So you’d rather spend your first period in your locker?” Harry laughed. “What are you? Harry Potter?”

 

“That’s cupboard under the stairs, not locker”, Peter pointed out. Harry shook their head, still laughing. “What? It’s quite comfortable inside there. Plus I can catch half an hour of sleep or something before Stan comes to the rescue.”

 

Stan was their school janitor. There was another Stan who worked in their school’s library. Peter once believed that those guys were twins.

 

Harry stared at him. Peter fidgeted under their gaze.

 

“Um… you. You wanttotalkaboutyesterday?” Peter blurted out. He felt heat crawling up his face once he realized what he was saying. “Er, um. I mean. Not-talk. I mean… I mean…”

 

Harry looked infinitely amused. “Peter? Shut up.” Peter did just that. He pulled his lips inside his mouth. Harry snorted, then they pulled Peter, dragging him out of the school building and to the field where it was empty. The first period should be starting in five minutes, but Peter couldn’t find himself to care.

 

Harry was kidnapping him, Peter almost giggled. He didn’t think he minded much because Harry’s hand was _warm warm warm warm_ on Peter’s almost usually cold sweaty hand.

 

Once both of them were sitting down on the bleacher, Harry made a ‘let me explain’ gesture with their hand.

 

“You know, I know you’re a huge nerd. I mean, SpiderSumonerr is a huge nerd. This is very confusing, but point is, I don’t know how to react with the fact that you’re that shy kid in class type who never talked unless asked by the teachers. I always take you… I mean, SpiderSumonerr… as someone who’s confident enough to rally thirty people or so to war”, Harry took a deep breath. “And now I’m rambling.”

 

“Internet anonymity”, Peter pointed out. “It boosts my confidence.”

 

“True. And to answer to your question, yes. Yes, I want to talk about yesterday”, Harry folded their arms and puffed up their chest. “You know that I’m asexual, right?”

 

Peter dumbly nodded.

 

“Right. So… you know that there are, ah, _certain things_ that I can’t, um, give.”

 

The tips of Harry’s ears were red. Peter was having a déjà vu. He nodded again. “I don’t—I don’t care about, uh, _certain things_. I mean, you are… _this_ ”, he waved his hand to Harry’s vague direction. “Can I make a confession?”

 

Harry hesitated, but nodded.

 

“Do you remember when you were eight grade and you defended a scrawny nerd from a bully because said scrawny nerd was spilling orange juice on said bully’s shirt?” Peter asked. Harry scrunched up their face, then slowly shook their head.

 

“Right. I had a stupid crush _on you_ because you were like a knight in shining armor to me and _no one_ has ever defended me from a bully, you know? I collected information about you, bits by bits. I knew that you had an _extensive_ collection of scarves. I knew that you don’t like peas. Your favorite subject is art history and your favorite artist is Alphonse Mucha. You also _loathe_ Mr. Fredrickson with passion”, Peter ended his ramble.

 

“I might’ve put you on high pedestal, I realize it now. But then we met at the park and I found out that you so would hug a cat even thought she might scratch your eyes out and that you have six cats that you love so badly and that your eyes shone fanfiction blue like something out of special effects when you were talking about your cats.” He was rambling. Peter knew he should stop if to salvage anything left from their barely starting friendship.

 

“I tried… I tried so hard to stomp my stupid crush and grind it under my feet into the dirt. Then, I started to accept that you might not be able to return my feelings. I never talked to you and I bet you would be weirded out if I _‘came out’_ to you. My crush to you, to Harry Osborn, died… and that’s when I realized I cared to Bluebell and had a crush to you”, Peter paused and remembered all those nights both of them were doing Kartia together and those stupid ‘dates’ in the Fantasy Island and how they would share lame puns and corny jokes.

 

“I—I mean… how could I not? You’re funny. You make Star Trek and Monty Phyton references like there’s no tomorrow. You named your cat _Khan_ , for God’s sake. You weep like small baby when Steve Rogers told Bucky that he would stay with him ‘till the end of the line. You make jokes about our sexuality. You pout when your Piggy Hat is gone. And the way you chat or text… oh God, sometimes I don’t know if I want to punch you because they’re sometimes so hard to understand or pat your head because they’re so… _you_.” Peter looked up to see Harry’s face and realized that their face was beet red. Peter’s face was probably the same. “I… I don’t know what’s the point in this. I’m rambling. I’m sorry. I should shut up. I’m dumb. Okay. Shutting up.”

 

“Peter, shut up”, Harry still had enough snark, apparently, despite their face being _that_ red they could probably explode from embarrassment. Peter shut up.

 

“I think your point is clear enough to me. That you… um… have crush on me, and by me I mean on Bluebell. But Bluebell is also me, and it confuses you. I… I know because it confuses me too”, Harry pulled Peter’s hands in theirs and rubbed circles on his skin with their thumbs. Like electric surge, it tingled where their skin met.

 

But wait… “Why… are you confused?” Peter wanted to know.

 

“Because you’re… you. You’re right, I don’t know you, as in I don’t know you as Peter. But I know you as Spidey. You’re… you’re this brave, reckless, funny, and selfless person. You defended Titan when people called him that ‘f’ word. You took us all, you created a safe space for us—”

 

“I don’t think I’m that great. I mean… it’s not a big deal”, Peter felt himself blushing.

 

“No, you don’t know. It _is_ a big deal. You don’t invalidate our identity. Sure, you might not know about the subject, but you don’t try and tell us that we’re ‘faking’ it. Even more than that, you actually went out to learn about things you don’t know and you call us by our preferred pronouns. Believe me, I can list a lot of people in the LGBT community that are less understanding than you”, Harry rolled their eyes and huffed in annoyance.

 

He… didn’t know how to respond to that. He guessed that not making any fuss with other people identity was a thing LGBT community was supposed to do. Apparently not, judging from what Harry had said. That made Peter shift uncomfortably. Why would someone _inside_ a marginalized community try to marginalize their own members?

 

Peter was… flattered by Harry’s honesty. He made mental notes that he would do better in the future.

 

“But… why are you confused, you haven’t answer me that”, Peter fiddled his thumbs. “Is it because I’m not what you’re expected…?”

 

Harry gave him a long stare. “Yes.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“But not in a bad way”, Harry continued. “I mean, you kinda… looked like a lost puppy.”

 

Peter squinted at them. He didn’t know how to respond to that either.

 

And then it clicked. Harry loved animals, especially dogs and cats. They were a type of person who would stop and pet stray cats or other people’s dogs. They were also a type of person who would take strays in because they couldn’t just leave them alone. To be compared to a lost puppy… did that mean that Harry…?

 

“Um”, Peter didn’t know that it was possible for his face to be this hot. By this point, steam should come out of his ears. “So. Um…”

 

“So. Yeah…” Harry echoed in the same manner.

 

Peter thought it should be impossible that this supposedly dead crush thing would be returning. It felt like a punch to his gut. But then he remembered the only time he was talking to Harry up close, in that park a few weeks ago (was it two months already?), remembered the way Harry’s eyes, which Peter would swear on his life that they were fanfiction-blue, glinted mischievously; the way their dimples showing when they smiled, how Peter wanted to kiss them when they laughed.

 

Right there, standing dumbly like a stunned Orc, he realized that it should be scientifically impossible to love someone that much.

 

“Do you… Do youwanttogooutwithme.”

 

Peter wanted to curl. He wanted to find a deep, deep hole and sink and curl until seventy years has passed. He didn’t believe he said that! What if he read Harry’s words incorrectly? What if _he_ was sending mixed signals to Harry?

 

He was too busy with his own thought that he didn’t hear Harry muttering a reply. Oh Gods… Peter _almost_ didn’t want to know Harry’s reply. The problem was _not_ Harry rejecting him. It was that Harry breaking their fragile sorta-friendship. What if they didn’t want to talk to Peter again because he made them _awkward?_

 

“Nerd. Hey”, Harry called. Peter turned back to them, slowly. “I didn’t say no…”

 

One blink, two blink. And then Peter felt like he wanted to soar up like a space rocket.

 

“I… I didn’t say yes either”, Harry continued, and Rocket-Peter crashed down to the Earth. “I… I mean, it’s a school day. We probably missed first period. If… if we ditch school… Gwen will kill me. And then my dad will find a way to bring me back from the dead and kill me again. But…” they took a deep breath. “But… do you want to go out after school? There’s this nice cafe that sells pumpkin spice pastries… I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want but…”

 

“I want to”, Peter quipped before Harry could finish their rambling. “Yeah. Yeah… after school ‘s nice. I mean, my mom probably will kill me too if I ditch school so…”

 

“After school?” Harry looked amused, though the tips of their ears were still candy cane red.

 

Peter nodded eagerly.

  
And if Mr. Fredrickson glared holes at him when he arrived late to his class, Peter was too high up the stars to notice it.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter took longer to edit because i realized halfway that i've been using the wrong pronoun for harry. i also edited last chapter because of the same reason. my apologies for nonbinary people reading this fic uvu

Peter felt like he was over the moon. Maybe that was why he was bouncing; you know, with lower gravity and that stuff. He was so happy. So happy that he didn’t even notice everything around him. Spring seemed to come early. Hmm… maybe he wasn’t on the moon. Wasn’t it spring in Australia?

If there was any God out there, He definitely was trying to make it up to him for making his high school life as miserable as it could be. Peter’s day progressively got better. He aced the mock tests for all three science subjects plus math (who did mock tests at the beginning of the semester anyway?), which pleased him. Flash and his goons looked even more subdued that Peter doubted one hundred percent of it came from Harry’s threat—no matter how deadly Harry’s threat was, they all could decimate Harry in one single blow, anyway. Later on Peter found out from the gossip mill that the football team got a new coach who apparently was not amused by the team’s cocky behavior and put them all in a Training Session From Hell. This also pleased Peter infinitely, because if Flash and his goons were knackered enough from their training, they wouldn’t have enough energy to run after him. Or so he hoped.

Obviously, he was nearly vibrating out of his skin as he had to sit through his extra German credits. Nothing too important, they were just talking about planning a drama for school’s Art Week, which would be held in October. Yes, a drama. In German. Knowing his luck, probably he would get casted as Tree #5 or something. At least that would be infinitely better than last year’s disastrous attempt at singing Hänschen Klein, which _seriously?_ Nursery rhyme? Lame.

When it was all done, Peter thought he could twirl on his toes. He probably shouldn’t, seeing that he only had been freed from constant bullying for like… an unforeseeable future. But by that reason, he probably should anyway. He was free from his bullies for the first time _ever_. Fortunately, before he could make his choice, he saw Harry.

Harry was talking with Gwen and Mary Jane, who were… okay, if Harry didn’t tell _him_ that those two girls were dating, he certainly wouldn’t know the better. There were subtle signs, like constantly touching on the shoulders, or Gwen and Mary Jane sharing secret smiles. Peter was not the master of subtlety. He was a Summoner; his servitors could shoot laser beams from the sky (or magic… whatever game logic). Subtlety was not in his dictionary.

Gwen noticed him first. She gave Peter a knowing smirk, then nudged Mary Jane and cocked her head at his direction. Mary Jane too smirked knowingly. It was only then Harry turned and faced him. Seeing Harry’s face, Peter swore he could float from sheer happiness.

“Heya…” Peter greeted them lamely. _Heya??_ Who would use _heya_ to greet their cool friends? Definitely no one. And wow, would you look at those eyes, those beautiful glimmering eyes. JJ Abrams could never make Chris Pine’s eyes as blue as Harry’s eyes, no matter how advanced the special effect he had at his disposal.

“Hey”, Harry gave him goofy grin. Peter wanted to kiss their cheeks, but refrained himself. They were in public. They were not out yet. Better not attempt it when Peter was only half an hour freed from his lifelong misery of bullying.

“Now that your boyfriend’s here, we’d better be going. Bye, Har! You too, Pete!” Gwen said in sing song voice and skipped away, followed by Mary Jane.

Did she just… _Boyfriend?_ Oh… _Oh_. Well… If you looked at it that way, then yeah sure. Peter was Harry’s boyfriend. Harry was Peter’s boyfriend. Peter was having an epiphany. Sort of.

“So. Hey.” And wow, Peter so much wanted to hit himself with a morning star. On the head. Probably it would knock him unconscious… forever. Or gave him third degree concussion. Preferably gave him memory loss too so he wouldn’t remember his lame greeting… _ever_.

“Hey too”, Harry said again. Peter grinned wider his cheeks would be hurt at this point, but he felt… He felt like he could crawl to the top of Empire State Building and announce it to the world that he had the most adorable boyfriend ever.

“So. Wanna go?” Harry asked. Aaaand, back to Earth. Whoops.

“Sure”, Peter tried not to sound too eager. Emphasize on ‘tried’. He definitely failed, because he was bouncing on his heels. The whole walk it took to the parking lot, he almost failed not to grab Harry’s hand and swing it back and forth. Almost. He still had that much self-preservation, thankfully.

Once they were inside Harry’s car, Peter started knocking his knees together. He was still grinning like an idiot. Harry was still grinning too, but that was alright. Because Harry grinning was probably the most angelic sight. Yes, Peter had to be dead already and he went to Heaven. Or somewhere equal to Heaven for Atheists. And Harry was an angel.

“Um. Hey.” Aaaand, that was the third time. If Kree attacked right now, he would rather face them than embarrassing himself in front of Harry. His boyfriend. Harry was Peter’s boyfriend.

“Hey too.” Harry was still grinning. Then, silence. And then, suddenly…

“KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN!!!”

The sound was piercing through the silence like a morning siren. Peter nearly jumped ten feet from where he sat. Harry seemed surprised too, muttering apologies as they fumbled to reach to their pocket. Their phone. Of course.

“Nice choice for ringtone”, Peter commented. And it wasn’t even from Reboot. That was definitely not Zachary Quinto’s voice. “The Wrath of Khan?”

Harry shot him a sort-of exasperated but fond look. Peter didn’t know that you could make that kind of expression, but then again it was Harry. Harry seemed able to pull every facial expression effortlessly. And now they were scrunching their adorable face in sort-of irritated and making cute pouty face. Peter didn’t know that you could make that kind of expression either.

“Something happened?” he dared to ask.

“I left my wallet on the cafeteria during lunch. Gwen found it, but she forgot to give me back”, Harry answered. Which also meant, Harry forgot to ask it back either.

“Uh-oh. Well, lucky I got some cash with me then”, Peter shrugged. Well, he might not have enough had Harry decided to have some grub at some shiny fancy place and they would probably end up eating hotdogs from street vendor… but hey, it was the thought that counted, right?

“Doesn’t matter. We can make a little detour to my apartment. I have a spare cash just in case”, Harry told Peter as they started the car.

Peter’s brain was stuck at the word ‘detour to my apartment’. Did Harry just implied… that they were taking Peter to their apartment? No, no. Bad Peter Parker, bad! Harry was only taking a short trip to get their spare wallet. They were not going to do anything because they were going to try that pumpkin pastry thing that Harry suggested to him. Bad Peter Parker and your stupid allosexual mind!

Okay, so he might or might not be a little bit curious to see Harry in their ~~natural habitat~~ home. When Harry pulled into a basement of one of the most luxurious apartment, somewhat Peter wasn’t all too surprised. It had eighty floors, and of course Harry lived on the penthouse. Peter wasn’t surprised by that too when Harry pressed the elevator button to the topmost floor level.

He sort-of expected highly ornamented living space. Maybe a baroque painting or two hanging on the walls or portraits of dead ancestors dated back to the sixtieth century. But the apartment was… looking all like two teenagers were living in there. The furnitures were clean and sleek. There was definitely no baroque painting, although there were a few movie posters greeting them on the hallway.

There were a pair of loafers that looked like nothing Harry would wear and a pair of expensive looking heels with… a lot of bling… that definitely looked like nothing Gwen would wear. Next to him, Peter could hear Harry cursing something under their breath.

“Just… make yourself at home maybe. I have parents to confront”, Harry said distractedly. _Parents?_ Peter thought Harry lived only with Gwen in here.

Peter was looking at the movie posters. There were classic Star Trek posters starting from the Motion Picture, the Wrath of Khan, the Search For Spock, and so on and so on. There were also all seven Star Wars movie posters and Marvel Cinematic Universe movie posters starting back from the Hulk. There was a glass display that kept action figures and ships. Oooh… Peter was almost drooling at the Enterprise series, from NCC-1701, NCC-1701A, NCC-1701B, and so on and so on. There was also collection of Pacific Rim’s Jaeger that appeared on the movie such as Gypsy Danger, Striker Eureka, Crimson Typhoon, Cherno Alpha… even there was Coyote Tango. And of course Harry had complete series of Marvel’s Hot Toys collection. He didn’t realize he was walking further and further until he reached a room that appeared to be the living room.

There was a man sitting on the armchair with a cat curling on his lap. They both had almost identical looking scowl on their face and probably would look like a villain coming from the movie had the cat was not a ginger. Orange cat hair nearly covered the man’s expensive looking dark suit. The effect, needless to say, was ruined.

Oops. Peter had forgotten that their little detour to Harry’s apartment also coincided with Harry’s parental-inspection to the apartment. The man had to be Harry’s dad, the Great Norman Osborn. Not that Peter recognized his face, since… y’know… it wasn’t like he had a monthly subscription to Times or Forbes.

Peter froze right at where he stood when the man took notice of him overing in the doorway.

“Good afternoon”, Peter flashed an awkward smile. What? He still had manners, okay? His mom and aunt raised him better than to behave like a chimpanzee.

The man gave a grunt.

“Harry’s friend?” the man that Peter was sure he was Harry’s dad asked.

“Yes, Sir.” Well, _boyfriend_ actually. But Peter stopped himself. Right, homophobic dad. Peter didn’t think Harry was coming out of that closet they hid in, and it wasn’t in Peter’s place to out them.

The man grunted again. Peter didn’t know what to do next. He’d never visited anyone’s house before, so he was flying completely blind here. Should he introduce himself? But seeing the seemingly permanent scowl on Harry’s dad’s face made Peter hesitant. Right. Better not to poke at that explosive right now.

Instead Peter chose to took notice of the cat at Harry’s dad’s lap. He was sure it was one of Harry’s army of cats because Harry’s dad was looking so damn much like sitting on a hot pan and seemingly like about to bolt away at the first chance. Funny, Peter thought. Shouldn’t Harry’s dad be looking a little bit… scarier? He was imagining someone like Bruce Wayne.

“Her name is Rita”, Harry’s dad said suddenly, which made Peter jolt out of his skin.

“She’s beautiful”, Peter blurted out. She really did, though. Ignoring her grumpy face, she was fat and well groomed. Her fur was long and bright orange. She also shed a lot, judging by the amount of hairs sticking to Harry’s dad’s suit.

“Can you pick her up?” Harry’s dad asked.

Peter blinked. “Of course, Sir.” Then he did just that, carefully removed the cat from Harry’s dad’s lap—and suuuure, _that_ was not awkward at all. The cat, Rita, yowled when Peter lifted her up, but a few scratches behind her ear and she was all but curling in Peter’s arm, purring contentedly.

Harry’s dad, meanwhile, had fled out of the room. No, he _really_ did bolted out of the room like cat doused with water. Not a few seconds later, Peter could hear a train of sneezes coming from the hallway. Oh.

 _Oh…_ Harry’s dad was _allergic_ to cat? And yet he let a cat sit on his lap for God knew how long. It seemed that Peter had to rethink his opinion about Harry’s dad. He didn’t think that anyone who loved animals would be horrible, but then again that was probably Peter being biased. Still, it seemed that Norman Osborn wasn’t a complete monster like Harry made him sounded like.

Harry’s dad was still sneezing, but Peter thought he was moving away from the living room because the sound of his sneezes went fainter and fainter. Then, Harry’s head was poking from the doorway.

“Did he shred you to pieces?” Harry asked once they were next to Peter.

“I think I would know if I lost a limb”, Peter raised an eyebrow. Harry’s shoulders slumped as they sighed. Peter was curious. “What was that anyway?”

“Mom wants to see me before they’re going off to the airport. Business trip or something at Europe”, Harry rolled their eyes. Oh. Right. Owner to multibillion dollar company, travelling around the globe like it was nothing. Peter hadn’t travelled further than New Jersey, for God’s sake.

“Your mom’s here too?” Of course she was. Who else would be wearing those expensive looking heels?

“In the kitchen. We were having laugh about ‘two grumpy cats sitting together’”, Harry grinned. That made Peter snort so hard.

“That’s very cruel, though, leaving your allergic dad with your cat”, Peter pointed out.

“Not our fault. He’s the only one who _hates_ cat in our family. Even my Gran loves cat”, Harry shrugged, looking all too pleased. “Gran’s the stereotype crazy cat lady. She has twenty cats. Imagine Christmas dinner.”

“Ho boy”, Peter couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for Harry’s dad. That had to be torture. Harry’s dad couldn’t help it if he was allergic to cats. That didn’t mean the man also hated cats. From what Peter saw, the man could’ve stood up or did something cruel to shoo the cat off; and yet he was letting a cat sitting on his lap.

“This girl seems to know that he hates cats because she always sits on him whenever he comes for visit. Good girl, Rita”, Harry gave the cat a gentle scratch under her chin. She purred louder in Peter’s arms.

“Still cruel”, Peter told him. Harry seemed pleased by themself and simply grinned wider.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two chapters in less than a week??? yeah, i know. i'm VERY itching to finish this fic ASAP and move to my other series. sadly, those series won't be parksborn, as i already moved on to parksbornova (sam that cute lil baby stole my heart). don't worry tho, i still have a parksborn oneshot that i have yet to finish 'w'
> 
> i added the chapter count because i had to split chapter 15 into two chapters.
> 
> enjoy~

Despite the unplanned meeting with the parent (father?) that thankfully left Peter unscathed and intact, they made it to the cafe. Peter shouldn’t be expecting anything else, but the fancy cafe was fancy. The food was good even though he had to order the cheapest thing on the menu, which turned out to be cheese sticks. Whatever. Those cheese sticks were like made by the gods themselves. A.K.A? Perfection.

 

And hey, he got his laptop. Granted, it wasn’t the beauty he had back at home, but it was still able to run pretty nicely. He connected to the cafe’s wi-fi and logged into the game. In front of him, Harry got their laptop open too. Peter giggled and poked Harry’s shin with the tip of his shoe.

 

“You know that I can pay for your meal, right?” Harry gave him ‘you-are-so-ridiculous’ look. And hey look, Peter now had mastered the Art of Harry’s-Facial-Reading. He should earn a cookie point for that.

 

“Nu-uh. You’re not paying for me”, Peter warned Harry, who looked not-impressed. “Seriously, chill. The cheese sticks are good anyway”, he made a point by biting into his cheese stick. It tasted Glorious with capital G. Did he already said they were glorious?

 

“You’re ridiculous”, Harry shook their head, but they didn’t bring up the topic again.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: hey dorklord**

 

Peter snorted so hard he thought he got a crumb of cheese stick stuck in his nose. Both of them were literally one feet apart and they chose to chat inside the game. Harry seriously had to reevaluate what they deemed ‘dorky’. Apparently, playing online game at a cafe was Harry’s brilliant idea of first date.

 

Oh look, Peter was having an epiphany again, because hello. He was having a date. Peter Parker, the lame nerd at school, was having a date. He was having his _first_ date. It was both his first date with Harry and also his first date _ever_.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSumonerr: And the dork calls a dork dork.**

**[whisper]Bluebell: do u kno taht dork s a whale dong**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I know. Pretty sure I told you that.**

 

It seemed that when they took a small detour to Harry’s apartment, Harry had also changed their scarf. Now they were wearing a dumb looking flair scarf in emerald green and silver colors that matched their moss green sweaters. Slytherin scarf, Peter noted.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSumonerr: Slytherin really??**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: I don’t peg you as Slytherin.**

 

In front of him, Harry was licking their spoon distractedly as they typed.

 

Peter found himself staring as Harry’s tongue was set on molesting the damn spoon. Harry got a nice tongue… or he expected it was nice since it was _Harry’s_. It was pink and soft-looking and so damn mesmerizing that Peter couldn’t help but wondering how it felt when he kissed them. Not that Peter would know if it was the best tongue since he didn’t have data to base on, buuuut point.

 

He cleared his throat and focused into the game. He wanted to smash his head on the nearest wall. Harry was asexual, of course they weren’t doing _it_ on purpose. Peter chanted inside his head like a mantra to control himself. _Asexual, asexual, asexual._

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: slyth is cool**

**[whisper]Bluebell: n ur staring**

 

When he looked back, Harry was blushing, but they were grinning too. Okay… definitely not intentional. Crisis averted. Peter shifted on his chair to take care of his other ‘crisis’ and thought about Aunt May in bikini. Which was… so wrong. So, _so_ , wrong that his boner wilted as quick as it popped.

 

Peter hoped Harry wouldn’t notice.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Wanna go hunting?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: kk lemme buy smth first**

 

Harry rose from their seat and went to the counter. Meanwhile, Peter formed a party and invited other clan members too. None of their clan tankers were online, so he had to find another Sigel Knight to tank… which was a bit hard since their clan didn’t exactly have ally in the game.

 

**[clan]XxXAikoTanXxX: is titan not online?**

 

“Here”, Harry offered a plate of a mouth watering slice of cheesecake. With blueberry jam on top. Peter shifted on his seat again.

 

“I told you you’re not paying for me”, he glared half-heartedly at Harry. In his defense, that cheesecake seriously looked so mouth watering.

 

“It’s your birthday gift. You’re not receiving another birthday gift until next year”, Harry pointed out. Tentatively, Peter accepted the plate as if expecting the cheesecake to explode any second.

 

“I’m holding you for that.” And with that, he dug into the cake slowly, just a tiny bit of it at the tip of his spoon and licked it. Mmm…

 

“We don’t have a tanker”, Peter told them once Harry was sitting down.

 

“I have someone in my friendlist. Hang on, I’ll whisper them”, Harry told him.

 

Not ten minutes later, they got a complete party. Peter and the Iss Enchanter teleported first to the Guillotine Fortress and walked to the hunting spot. Once they got a secure spot on the top of a tower, Peter used his summoner skill to call the party members one by one.

 

With two level 99 in the party, it got boring pretty quickly what with the repetitive keysmash to use the same skills again and again. Peter glanced at Harry who looked serious controlling their healer. Sure, playing as healer gave more challenge since you needed to stay focus all the time, but still…

 

Peter stared back at his monitor, pretending to focus on the game. Slowly, he poked Harry’s shin again. Peter glanced back at Harry. No response.

 

Feeling brave, Peter moved up his foot.

 

“Pete”, Harry warned.

 

“Yes?” Peter was still pretending to focus… or half focus since a loose mob just attacked Bluebell. Peter directed his Cougars to attack the mob until the tanker aggro’d it. His foot was still toeing Harry’s shin.

 

“Stop that”, Harry’s eyes were still glued to the monitor.

 

“Stop what? I didn’t do anything”, Peter blinked innocently at Harry. He retracted his foot just to make his point.

 

“Yeah right”, Harry snorted. In game, one of their party members died when Scaldisect the Furious, a sneaky mob that only appeared when either one of them got a certain item, ambushed their party. Peter felt bad and stopped disturbing Harry as they were resurrecting the dead party member.

 

It didn’t last long. Soon enough, Peter went back to poking Harry’s shin again. He had to hold back a laughter when Harry’s leg jolted upon contact.

 

“Peter Parker”, Harry hissed.

 

“What?” Peter made a mock irritated face, but it dissolved into howls of laughter soon enough. “Dude! You should’ve seen your face!”

 

“Not funny, Parker! Stop tickling me!” Harry’s hiss turned into half-growl.

 

“Oooh, it tickles?” Peter grinned. So Harry’s legs were their tickle spot? This would be interesting.

 

“Don’t”, Harry shot him warning look. “Even think about it.”

 

Peter grinned wider. His leg started to reach blindly for Harry’s leg under the table. Commence the Operation Tickle Attack! The table shook when Harry tried to avoid Peter’s relentless attacks. In the end, they sat on their legs and stuck their tongue out to Peter.

 

“Aww dude”, Peter whined. Operation Tickle Attack: Failed.

 

“I swear I’m not healing you”, Harry went back to the game.

 

Peter did too, but suddenly another Scaldisect appeared and oneshotted Peter’s summoner. Harry was too busy healing the tanker and mage when Peter’s summoner died.

 

“Ress me Har”, Peter told them.

 

One minute passed, Peter’s character was still in horizontal position on the muddy ground. Peter tapped his mouse and glanced over to Harry. They weren’t serious… were they? “Har.”

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Babe.**

**[party]Bluebell: dont call me babe**

 

Peter glanced Harry again. They were pouting.

 

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: Okay, I get it.**

**[party]SpiderSummonerr: No messing with the healer.**

**[party]Bluebell: dont do tht agein >:|**

 

Finally, _finally_ , Harry resurrected Peter’s summoner and healed his health and mana to full bar. Peter grinned.

 

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: Thanks babe.**

**[clan]Bluebell: dont call me taht**

**[clan]QueenBasilia: are u two srsly having a lover’s spat jus nao**

 

“Er”, Peter was pretty sure his face was beet red. He knew that QueenBasilia was only joking, but still… They just had their first spat, didn’t they?

 

**[clan]XxXAikoTanXxX: mommy and daddy having a spat ^o^**

**[clan]Bluebell: dud e**

**[clan]Bluebell: pls**

**[clan]SirDouglas78: shit you’re rly dating aren’t you????**

 

Ooookay, Peter Parker. You needed to play it cool. Play. It. Cool. There was no way these guys knew that he was dating Bluebell. Granted, if he came out to these guys, they probably would only tease him for him, but that would be that.

 

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: Er… We only started dating today…**

**[clan]QueenBasilia: and here we thought u hv been dating since like ages ago**

 

Peter spluttered.

 

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: What?? What????**

**[clan]XxXAikoTanXxX: yeah i thought you two r dating since forever**

**[clan]XxXAikoTanXxX: i mean you guys r always together doing quests etc**

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: Whaaaaaaaaaaaattt???? No we didn’t!!!!!!**

**[clan]SpiderSummoner: I mean we do now but we didn;t/????**

**[clan]SirDouglas78: well gratz bro**

**[clan]QueenBasilia: Blue and Spidey sitting on a tree**

**[clan]QueenBasilia: S I T T I N G**

**[clan]Bluebell: nerds u lot**

 

Peter glanced back at Harry. They were grinning dumbly and the tip of their ears were red.

 

**[clan]SpiderSummonerr: And the nerd calling the nerds nerd.**

 

As they continued the grinding, their clan chat was filled with good-natured ribbing aimed at both him and Harry.

 

\--

 

It was already dark when Harry drove him home, though thankfully it wasn’t past his curfew yet. The lights were still on, indicating that his mom and/or aunt were still up and about.

 

“Sorry that it got so late”, Harry told him once Peter was out of their car.

 

“Nah, it’s fine”, Peter bounced on the ball of his heels, grinning. “Hey, I had fun today.”

 

“Good”, Harry grinned back.

 

“Okay”, Peter bounced again and twirled his thumbs. “I… probably should go in.”

 

“Yeah. Yeah.” Peter could see Harry’s eyes twinkled under the street light. Fanfiction blue. Tesseract blue. Then, “Do you want to kiss me?”

 

Peter felt himself over the clouds again. “Really?” Just to make sure. _Asexual_ , Peter’s brain reminded him.

 

“Yeah”, Harry let out a tiny giggle. “On the cheek?”

 

That, Peter thought, he could do. He leaned over and couldn’t help but breathing in Harry’s scent. They still smelled like that pumpkin spice pastries they ate on that cafe. Closing his eyes, he placed a quick peck on their cheek.

 

And just because he could, “Boop”, he made a sound as his lips touched the soft, _sweet-smelled_ skin.

 

“What was that!” Harry broke out in laughter. Their laugh was beautiful. Harry was beautiful, Peter thought as he straightened up. Straight… hehe.

 

“I booped you”, he said as the matter-of-factly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Well, it was. It was, in Peter’s world.

 

“Nerd”, Harry shook their head fondly.

 

“Your nerd”, Peter stated.

 

“That is true”, Harry made an impression of Rocket Racoon’s shrieky voice, mimicking the Guardian’s gesture flawlessly with his hand.

 

“You’re also my nerd”, Peter played along.

 

“That is also true”, Harry continued. Peter giggled. It was a manly giggle, thank you very much.

 

Peter realized that he didn’t want to go. He wanted to hop back into the car and follow Harry back to their apartment, scoop them up in his arms and cuddle them to death. Well… not literal death, hopefully. But his mom would be throwing a serious fit if he didn’t return before curfew.

 

“Permission to be dismissed?” Peter quipped.

 

“Permission granted”, Harry nodded in mock-serious manner.

 

Peter almost bounced to the porch. When he reached the front door, he turned and saw that Harry’s car was still right there, under the street lamp. Peter waved. Harry waved back. It was absolutely and ridiculously sappy but Peter didn’t care. He couldn’t help but grinning from ear to ear as he finally opened the door. Once inside, he waved again to Harry through the glass door, though he was sure Harry couldn’t see him. Still, he was still planted by the door until Harry started the car and drove away.

 

Still grinning, Peter pranced into the house. He could hear the TV from the living room slash kitchen and the conversation between his mom and aunt about idle gossips. Peter decided that The Talk could wait until… never. Yet, halfway to the upstairs, he paused.

 

It wasn’t fair. His mom had been worried sick about him this morning, so the least he could do was to tell her what happened. With a sigh, he strode back down and to the kitchen. Time to face it like a man… or like a responsible human being because the phrase ‘like a man’ sounded incredibly sexist, implying that woman couldn’t do anything responsibly.

 

“Hey Mom”, he cut off his angry feminist ramble in his head and swooped his mom into a bear hug.

 

“Peter!” his mom let out a surprised gasp and bopped his head. She gave Aunt May knowing look before smiling back to him. “How was school?”

 

Peter was grateful that she didn’t bring up his… emo teen moment this morning. To show it, he smooched her cheek in exaggerated manner that caused her to bop his head again.

 

“Enough with that, Peter”, she rolled her eyes.

 

“School is good”, Peter told her. “And… I might ormightnothaveaboyfriendnow.”

 

There. The truth was out. Peter pulled his lips inside his mouth and waited for the explosion to happen.

 

“Oh”, his mom gasped, before the truth sank in. “Oh Peter! That is so great! So I take it your ‘teenage problem’ has been resolved?”

 

Peter actually felt his face heat up before nodding.

 

“Teenager”, his mom and Aunt May sighed in unison.

 

“You’re okay with it…?” Peter asked slowly.

 

“Of course we are. I thought we’re over this when you told us you’re gay”, Aunt May nodded seriously, placing a surprisingly strong hand on his shoulder before forcing him to sit between them. “Now sit down and tell us about him.”

 

Peter cleared his throat awkwardly. It felt like The Talk had already begun and there was no way out for him until he finished talking. He knew his mom and aunt were; they wouldn’t just let him away without detailed explanation.

 

“Um… they’re funny—”

 

“They?” his mom asked.

 

“Yes, um. It’s a… gender neutral pronoun. They’re agender. Meaning, they don’t identify with any gender though they’re born as male”, Peter nodded.

 

“Like transgender?” Aunt May asked this time. Sometimes it was scary just how in sync his mom and his aunt were.

 

“Erm… I don’t know about that. Wait, wait… doesn’t transgender means a gender identity that doesn’t match someone’s biological match? But, um… my, uh, my boyfriend or partner or”, Peter paused his rambling. What would you call your agendered boyfriend? Lover sounded intimate and partner sounded… formal. Crush? Squish? Date-mate? “Um… point is, they just don’t identify with any gender. Male, female, or otherwise. It’s just like… that?”

 

“Okay”, his mom muttered slowly. It was clear that his mom and his aunt were still looking confused. Heck, he was confused himself. He’d actually never gave a thought about that. He knew that Harry was agender and preferred neutral pronoun and that was that. It sounded simple, but turned out it wasn’t?

 

“So uh yeah… I’m not actually dating two or more guys. I’m not that popular”, Peter flailed his hands and gave them a weak lopsided grin. “But they’re funny… and cute. And love cats and dogs. By love I mean they have eight or so cats in their apartments. And they’re—”

 

“Peter”, Aunt May interrupted. “We mean his name. What’s his name? Oh gosh! It’s not that guy you talked about those months ago is he?”

 

“No way! That ‘friend’ you met when you walked the dogs?” his mom looked like she’d just cracked the ultimate mystery of the universe.

 

Peter swore that he could die from the embarrassment. How in the world these two women still remembered a thing happened like ages ago.

 

“… Yeah, that one actually”, Peter mumbled and looked down to his lap.

 

“I knew it!” Aunt May giggled—honest to God _giggling_.

 

“Their name is Harry”, Peter squeaked. “Harry Osborn. And please use ‘they’ pronoun, please.”

 

“You did not!” his mom looked absolutely surprised. “You’re dating _that_ Harry Osborn? _My boss_ ’ son?”

 

“Mom!” Peter was seriously contemplating to drown himself in the sink. Right, he almost forgot that his mom _worked_ for Harry’s dad. Define ‘awkward’.

 

“Peter, are you sure about this?” it was Aunt May who sounded concerned. “Are you sure about—about _dating_ him?”

 

“I’m… pretty sure”, Peter faltered a little at Aunt May’s wary expression. “And please, Aunt May, Mom. Use ‘they’ pronoun. They’re not comfortable with gendered pronoun and though they use male pronoun in public, that’s because they’re not out yet. I want them to feel safe and accepted around me.”

 

“Oh, sorry”, Aunt May sounded embarrassed.

 

“We’ll try, Honey. We’ll try”, his mom reassured. “And if you’re sure with this, with dating Harry Osborn, I trust your judgement and I can only offer you my blessing.”

 

“Thanks, Mom, Aunt May”, Peter smiled at both of them.

 

“And we definitely have to invite them for dinner!” his Aunt May suggested. “I’m going to cook them food that’s not even the Osborn’s cooks can hope to compare!”

  
Peter groaned. Knowing his aunt, it would be a family recipe meatloaf.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm really sorry that this chapter is so very very very very very late, but i lost interest in writing and especially i lost interest in writing this fic. there are so many mistakes and weird plot that i just... ugh... but there's only one chapter left and i'm too lazy to rewrite. so...
> 
> thank you for all of you who left comments and kudos. i'm sorry that i don't reply them, but mostly i'm just too embarrassed by this fic to reply. i don't know if people are still shipping parksborn since the sequel got cancelled and overall it will get retconned anyway (dammit marvel) but here you go...

The worst thing with two boys dating in secret was that they couldn’t do all the couple-y stuffs in public and probably some of the not-so couple-y stuffs. It just really sucked that Mary Jane and Gwen could hug or lean to whisper in each others’ ear right out in public while Peter couldn’t even hold Harry’s hands without getting accused of being gay. Ugh.

 

Okay, so they technically _might_ be gay, if one used gay as an umbrella term for ‘not-straight’. Heck, Peter _was_ gay, as in homosexual-homoromantic _Homo sapien_ , as in man-loving queer man (he tried not to think as dick-loving queer… after all, he just had a ground-shattering realization that not all men had dick and not all people with dick were men). Both of them weren’t out of that particular closet yet, but even if somehow someone outted them, well… Peter was so used with getting bullied just for being a scrawny nerd. Getting bullied for being gay wouldn’t hurt him.

 

 

He preferred that he didn’t get bullied at all, though.

 

Still, Peter’s main concern was Harry. Harry was a pretty well-known figure. They had blogs dedicated to what clothes they were wearing for the week or what kind of haircut they were having (and Peter swore one of them specifically focused on his butt). Of course, unsurprisingly, they had fans. They’d been scrutinized by the public just because their daddy was rich as Scrooge McDuck and their mom was retired Hollywood actress. The aforementioned daddy was also homophobic. So, there was that.

 

Good bye holding hands in public.

 

\--

 

As the season got colder, Harry started to wear ridiculous amount of clothing. Currently, they were wearing thick beige overcoat over their collared white shirt layered under black T-shirt and equally thick, fluffy moss green sweater. They also had thick black and green scarf wound around their neck, though that did nothing to prevent their nose from touching crisp late autumn air.

 

Harry’s nose was awfully red it was adorable.

 

“It’s not adorable”, Harry glowered, before sipping his pumpkin spice latte. Peter snorted. Harry bumped his shoulder in retaliation, causing him to spill his own vanilla latte. “Ugh, I hate winter. My nose is always cold. My hands are always cold. Pete, _hug me_.”

 

A part of Peter’s brain was squealing at Harry’s awfully adorable whining while another part was grumbling that now his hands were sticky with sugary drink, but that was until he realized one second too late that _Harry was asking him to hug them in public_.

 

Peter had a late drama practice for his German class and Harry, who was to his surprise waiting for him until he got out of the class, had insisted to go out for a cup of coffee because they were freezing their butt.

 

They were walking on an open plaza inside a mall where Harry had roped him to get their fancy expensive coffee. It wasn’t that packed since it was weekday, but Peter didn’t think Harry was _serious_ when they were asking him to hug them.

 

“Of course I’m serious”, Harry huffed in annoyance, throwing his empty cup to the nearest bin. Apparently Peter just started his old habit of spouting out loud whatever he was thinking. What the heck, brains.

 

“Uh… I thought you want to keep this secret”, Peter blurted. “I mean, us. Together. Ish.”

 

Harry blinked at him. They looked really, really confused. “Why would I want to keep this a secret?”

 

Oh no. Was he wrong?

 

“Uh… Because your dad’s homophobic bigot who had you use male pronoun instead of your preferred pronoun?” Peter replied slowly. Was Harry really serious?

 

“Oh”, Harry looked down. “Yeah, that. Uh, I mean, I just sorta don’t care anymore, y’know. What’s the worst he’s gonna do, disown me?”

 

Peter turned alarmed at that. “He wouldn’t do that, would he?”

 

Harry shrugged weakly, but he didn’t say anything else. Shit shit banana split. It wasn’t Peter intention to make his date-mate _sad_.

 

“If he _did_ kicked you out, um, I dunno… you can always stay with me?” Peter offered. “I mean, my mom and aunt know that I have a boyfriend… _date-mate_ , and they’re pretty chill with it, y’know. And my aunt, oh man, she’s probably gonna fuss all over you and feed you meatloaves until you explode.”

 

“They sound like fun”, Harry gave him a small smile.

 

“They are.”

 

“My mom… I used to tell her that I’m asexual, y’know. Back in tenth grade. She didn’t know what it means, so I had to explain it to her. You know what she told me?” Harry then raised their voice one octave and placed their hands over their chest. “‘ _Oh Harry, you just haven’t met the perfect girl yet. Just wait! When you meet her, you’ll see!_ ’”

 

“No way!” Peter cried out.

 

“Ugh, I know. I just gave up and told her I’m gay”, Harry grimaced. “I think she’s trying to understand. Dad told her not to encourage me. I thought they’re going to cry when I told them I want to room with Gwen.”

 

“That’s just… Wow…”

 

“ _Heteronormativity_ ”, Harry spat. The way they were saying it, it sounded more like they were saying something really disgusting. In this case, it probably was. Silently, Peter was thankful to have such understanding family. He probably should buy his mom and aunt something really nice for their birthdays.

 

“Uh, just so you know, I’m not going to pressure you or whatever. I’m okay with this being secret. Us. I mean…” Peter ruffled his hair, then cursed inwardly when he realized that his hand was still sticky. Ugh. Great. “I mean, not that I don’t want to, y’know. Being couple-y. Hold hands or whatever. But I don’t want you to get kicked out just because your parents can’t accept you for being, well, _you_. I want you to be safe, first and foremost. I care about you, you know?”

 

Harry’s eyes widened. They turned away, but Peter could see slight blush on their cheeks. “Um… Thanks, I guess?”

 

“Yeah”, Peter grinned, then bumped their shoulder. “Hey, I’m really serious when I said you can go to my place. In fact, if you get kicked out, I want you to go straight to my place, you got it?”

 

“Yes, yes”, Harry rolled their eyes. “Now hold my hand. I think I’m starting to get frostbite.”

 

Peter grinned at that and promptly linked their hands. Their hand felt like a block of ice, so Peter pulled it closer to him and discreetly rubbed it to give it warmth. “Why don’t you wear gloves?” he mused.

 

“Because then we won’t be able to hold hands”, Harry made a fake pout. Peter’s heart skipped a bit.

 

“Point.”

 

\--

 

Christmas break started two days ago and Peter was planning to spend it with levelling up his double class and maybe occasionally going out on dates with his date-mate. He was doing Kartia when Harry whispered him in the game. He finished re-buffing the party before he read it.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: dad want to spend xmas @ mountain cabin**

 

Oh… that was… disappointing. Peter typed and re-typed his answer several times. What should he say? Have fun? Good luck? Ugh… why couldn’t there be a manual to talk to people?

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: wanna come??**

 

Peter blinked. On the plus side, he _really_ wanted to spend his first Christmas together with Harry. On the minus side, he couldn’t raise Mr. Osborn’s suspicion that Peter was dating his son. Like, at all. Meaning: no hand-holding, no cheek-kissing. It would be a fun ‘no-homo’ vacation.

 

Somehow, Peter imagined what would happen if Mr. Osborn found them smooching by the campfire. He would kill Peter and throw his dead body to the bears, maybe.

 

**[whisper]Bluebell: gwen-mj r goin 2**

 

Oh well… If Gwen and Mary Jane were going too, then it would be a shared misery.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Let me ask mom.**

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: Brb.**

 

“Mom!” Peter stomped down the stairs. He found his mom in her room, her laptop on her lap. He waited until she raised her head. “Harry asked me to go to his family cabin with our friends. Can I come?”

 

“Will there be an adult coming with you?” his mom asked.

 

“Yeah, actually. Harry’s parents are going too.”

 

“Are you going to stay until Christmas?” his mom asked again. Peter scratched his head.

 

“I haven’t asked…”

 

“Go ask them, then.”

 

Grinning, Peter raced up the stairs and plopped down in front of his computer.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: How long are we staying there?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: obvs for th rest of hols 4 me**

**[whisper]Bluebell: but gwens gonna stay 3 days**

**[whisper]Bluebell: her dad wanst to spend xmas w her n fams**

 

Oh well… Peter’s mom probably would want to spend Christmas with the whole family too. That was probably why she asked the question. If that was the case, he could leave with Gwen.

 

**[whisper]SpiderSummonerr: When will we leave?**

**[whisper]Bluebell: er**

**[whisper]Bluebell: tonite…??**

 

“Holy cactus pricks…” Peter muttered.

 

After that, it was a blur of packing which consisted of a lot of yelling because he couldn’t find his socks or his mom reminding him to bring extra toothbrush or his aunt preparing him meatloaf sandwiches to be shared with his friends until his mom swatted her and told her that ‘ _Peter isn’t going to starve, May!_ ’ because apparently she was preparing him the whole fridge, from the look of it. When he finally zipped his bag, he cursed because he forgot to bring underwears. He raced down to the basement to get them from the washing machine, but turned out someone already took them out.

 

The Osborns arrived in a sleek black limo. Mr. Osborn looked so out of place in his expensive-looking dark overcoat, standing awkwardly on the Parkers’ front porch, but Harry had no such qualm. While Peter’s mom and aunt distracted him with parental chatters, Peter pulled Harry up to his room.

 

“Sorry that you can’t meet my mom and aunt in better situation. I want to introduce you, y’know… but your dad’s there sooo--oh gosh, hang on. My room’s usually not _this_ messy, y’know”, Peter ended with a mumble and began shoving dirty laundries under his desk. Harry, who was sitting on Peter’s bed, looked amused.

 

“Ugh, about that… Dad insists to meet your mom. Apparently he used to work with your dad…?”

 

“Mom said my dad used to work at Oscorp”, Peter explained. Then, at Harry’s questioning look, he continued. “My dad and uncle died when I was three. Drunk driver… y’know, killed them.”

 

“I’m sorry…” Harry whispered.

Peter turned to them and flicked their nose. “So, don’t you ever dare to drive under influence or I’m breaking up with you!” he joked.

 

“I wouldn’t!” Harry cried. “Gwen’s gonna kill me before I can think of it! Besides, she always hides my keys whenever I start drinking.”

 

“Well, that’s awesome of her”, Peter mused. “C’mon, let’s go downstairs before your dad’s wondering if I’m kidnapping you. Or my aunt decided to feed him meatloaves.”

 

Peter grabbed his bag and tromped downstairs, Harry following behind him, only to find Mr. and Mrs. Osborn munching on a meatloaf sandwich in the Parkers’ humble kitchen. They were talking about bad weather up north and whether the cold wave would hit East Coast or not. Peter grinned at Harry, who was grinning back.

 

Peter hugged his mom and aunt and said goodbye. Then, Harry pulled him to sit with them and distracted him with their cat videos. Peter felt a brief terrifying moment when Mr. Osborn was glaring daggers at him, but it went away when the older man pulled an iPad and began working. Harry gave their mom an eye-roll while Peter stared at them, incredulous. Who the flick was working _during_ their family vacation?

 

They picked up Gwen and Mary Jane, before heading to the airport. Of course, it was packed full with people who was returning home for holiday or having family vacation… or anything else. Peter, who never had the chance to step in an airport before, could only think that he would totally get lost inside there without anyone to guide him. With that thought, he dutifully followed Harry and resolved that he wouldn’t lose them.

 

Before Peter could even have the chance to recover from his first airport experience, he found out that they were going to use Mr. Osborn’s private jet instead of using whatever commercial flight like normal person.

 

The plane was small, smaller than any other planes around it, but Peter thought it looked better. Sleeker. More… modern. The difference looked stark when they got inside. Somehow Peter doubted that even the most expensive commercial flight would have a flipping wide screen or a cocktail bar installed. Harry was obviously used with the sheer luxury of it, and apparently, so was Gwen; probably because she was Harry’s childhood friend and had experienced the jet before this. Mary Jane, on the other hand, looked just as flabbergasted as Peter. They stared at each other before joining Harry and Gwen, who were already fighting for TV remote on the sofa.

 

The plane took off in an hour. Peter watched the takeoff process from the beginning, fascinated by anything and everything in front of his eyes. The runway rushed past them, faster and faster, and the wing flaps extended to let the air current pushed them up. Soon, the plane began to ascent and Peter felt like he left his stomach on the ground.

 

All by sudden, Harry was all but shoving a handful of toffees to him. Peter looked at them, confused, but Harry just rolled their eyes and smiled fondly. Peter let go of his death grip to the armrest, not remembering when did he start gripping it for dear life, and took the toffees from Harry’s hand.

 

Peter went back to watch the ground grew smaller and smaller under them. He was surprised to find out that even from this up high, he could still see the streets and the buildings, though he definitely couldn’t see the humans. He wondered if this was what aliens see when they visited Earth.

 

Weird thought. Shut up, brain.

 

Then, the plane tilted sideways, and Peter gripped the armrest again.

 

“First time flying?” Mary Jane asked from beside him. Peter finally turned away from the window. At some point, Gwen and Harry had started fighting for the TV remote.

 

“Those two always do that”, Mary Jane sighed exasperatedly, then turned back to Peter. “A bit of advice? They can get a bit touchy-feely since they’ve been friends since forever. Don’t get jealous. Get used to it.”

 

“Um… thanks”, Peter blushed. “And yeah, it’s my first time flying. Kinda absurd that this expensive hunk of metal can fly.”

 

Mary Jane laughed. “I know what you mean. Also, with the ‘expensive’ part. Mr. Osborn really goes all out in everything, isn’t he? A bit showoff-y, but it’s not like I’m paying a cent for this so I’m not going to protest.”

 

“Peasants like us really can’t hope to compare”, Peter grinned at her.

 

“That is the truth”, Mary Jane sighed.

 

Not long after, the flight attendants brought out drinks; scotch for the adults and hot chocolate for the teenagers. Peter watched amusedly as Harry was dumping marshmallows into their mug, so much until they made a tiny mountain of it on the top of the mug. Then, they poured generous amount of whipped cream and chocolate syrup on top of the marshmallows.

 

“You’re going to rot your teeth”, Gwen scrunched her nose. Harry stuck their tongue to her and began spooning the sugary abomination.

 

“I kind of agree with Gwen. I think I got diabetes just from looking at it”, Peter commented, faking a grimace.

 

“Shuf-uf! ‘S goof”, Harry glared at Peter. The effect was ruined with their bulging cheeks, mouth full with marshmallows. Gwen rolled her eyes, clearly used to their antics. Mary Jane laughed.

 

Peter was tempted to press kisses on Harry’s cheeks, but he couldn’t risk it. There were flight attendants around; and if that wasn’t deterrent enough, Harry’s parents were just right across the cabin, talking to each other.

 

Instead, Peter just had to make do with rolling his eyes.

  
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